The Spaniard was quickest in this morning’s practice session in Hockenheim 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 chequered 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 laptime, 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 laptime, 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 laptime, it was Vietoris who eventually clocked in time good enough to place him in P3 under the chequered 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