Dani Clos on top in wet Practice Session

Dani Clos took control of the session early despite the wet conditions and kept the lead only briefly before taking it back in the last minutes. In spite of their efforts, ART racers Jules Bianchi and Sam Bird could not deprive Clos of his top spot. His Racing Engineering teammate Christian Vietoris even slipping to P3 at the checkered flag.

Although Bianchi was quick in action as the session started, it was GP2 returnee Romain Grosjean who showed the strongest pace in the early minutes, but Clos was soon faster than anyone else. While the two Frenchmen battled hard to try and better the Spaniard’s best lap time, the rest of the field were busy managing the tricky and slippery track, many of them going wide in Turn 1.

It was a short session for Michael Herck who span and hit the wall at Turn 13. Fabio Leimer also lost control of his Ocean car at Turn 12 and had to retire as well. The first half of the session come and gone, Clos was still ahead of Grosjean by a small margin with Bianchi and Giacomo Ricci in tow. Light rain started to fall and the second sector became all the more difficult to pass as Adrian Zaugg’s incident at Turn 17 proved. The Trident man lost control of his machine and had to retire. In the closing minutes, Bird kept improving in sectors 1 and 3, enough to claim the third best lap time, but he was quickly pushed back two spots by Bianchi and Series leader Pastor Maldonado.

While Grosjean, Bianchi, Maldonado and Bird were fighting hard to better Clos’ quickest lap time, it was Vietoris who eventually clocked in time good enough to place him in P3 under the checkered flag. Since the German weather promises more rain for this afternoon, it is quite safe to bet that the qualifying session will be one you cannot miss.

Hockenheim – Practice Session Driver Team Time Laps
1. Dani Clos Racing Engineering 1:36.351 15
2. Jules Bianchi ART Grand Prix 1:36.470 18
3. Christian Vietoris Racing Engineering 1:36.579 16
4. Sam Bird ART Grand Prix 1:36.976 15
5. Romain Grosjean Dams 1:36.996 16
6. Pastor Maldonado Rapax 1:37.016 17
7. Luca Filippi Super Nova Racing 1:37.318 16
8. Giedo van der Garde Barwa Addax Team 1:37.329 15
9. Sergio Perez Barwa Addax Team 1:37.388 16
10. Ho-Pin Tung Dams 1:37.521 17
11. Max Chilton Ocean Racing Technology 1:37.601 16
12. Alberto Valerio Scuderia Coloni 1:37.621 14
13. Oliver Turvey iSport International 1:37.767 14
14. Davide Valsecchi iSport International 1:38.016 16
15. Rodolfo Gonzalez Arden international 1:38.233 14
16. Giacomo Ricci DPR 1:38.294 16
17. Marcus Ericsson Super Nova Racing 1:38.431 15
18. Charles Pic Arden International 1:38.436 15
19. Luiz Razia Rapax 1:38.753 16
20 Johnny Cecotto Trident Racing 1:38.826 16
21. Fabio Leimer Ocean Racing Technology 1:39.571 6
22. Adrian Zaugg Trident Racing 1:40.058 7
23. Vladimir Arabadzhiev Scuderia Coloni 1:42.136 10
24. Michael Herck DPR 1:43.958 3