Wurz tops first practice session at Nürburgring

F1 Grand Prix, GP Europe, Nürburgring

In a relatively quiet first session, Williams driver Alexander Wurz has topped free practice times with a lap of 1:32.079. The Austrian was consistently one of the quickest men on track, laying down the gauntlet to the other Friday drivers. Anthony Davidson was his closest challenger for Honda, setting a lap 0.320 adrift of the Williams.

Robert Kubica continued to show fine form for BMW with the third fastest lap of the morning, stopping the clocks almost three quarters of a second off the ultimate morning pace. The Pole was narrowly faster than Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher, who is running high on confidence after his and Ferrari’s much needed win in Imola two weeks ago.

The top six was rounded out by Red Bull’s Robert Doornbos and the second Honda driven by Jenson Button.

As is the norm these days, the majority of the early championship hopefuls did limited running. Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella ran two outlaps each with no time set as they preserved their cars for this afternoon. Juan Pablo Montoya was another driver who failed to set a time, while his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen took his McLaren to eighth place behind the Honda of Rubens Barrichello.

Track conditions were still quite slippery this morning, with no rain yet to fall despite forecasts that the Nurburgring would see some showers today. The weather remains warm and sunny, although the threat of inclement weather remains high for Sunday’s race.