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Robert Kubica headed the times at Hockenheim in second practice on Friday afternoon with a lap of 1m 16.225s for BMW Sauber. Perhaps more representative, however, was Michael Schumacher’s second-fastest lap of 1m 16.502s for Ferrari.
Rain just before the start of the hour-long session dissuaded many from venturing out initially, as Alexander Wurz set the pace for Williams. It is so humid here, however, that before long the track dried out and most drivers ran. Only Sakon Yamamoto, who did only two installation laps in his Super Aguri, and Nico Rosberg, whose Williams was still being repaired after this morning’s error, did not set times.
Robert Doornbos was third for Red Bull with 1m 16.549s, then came Kimi Raikkonen (1m 17.040s), Felipe Massa (1m 17.205s), Anthony Davidson (1m 17.295s), Mark Webber (1m 17.344s), Pedro de la Rosa (1m 17.516s), Rubens Barrichello (1m 17.519s), Jenson Button (1m 17.542s), Giancarlo Fisichella (1m 17.672s), Jarno Trulli (1m 17.844s), Ralf Schumacher (1m 17.895s) and Markus Winkelhock (1m 17.962s). As you can see, the times were very close in the midfield.
Behind that group, Fernando Alonso was content with 15th place on 1m 18.082s, ahead of Wurz (1m 18.164s), Christian Klien (1m 18.223s), Tonio Liuzzi (1m 18.366s), Neel Jani (1m 18.460s), David Coulthard (1m 18.616s), Nick Heidfeld (1m 18.636s), Christijan Albers (1m 18.643s) and Tiago Monteiro (1m 18.991s). Again, closely matched.
Finally, Jacques Villeneuve lapped his BMW Sauber in 1m 19.113s, ahead of Scott Speed (1m 19.232s) and Takuma Sato, whose 1m 19.365s in the new Super Aguri SA06 was highly encouraging for the team, despite hydraulic problems on both Sato's and Yamamoto's cars.
There were several incidents, Webber, Raikkonen, Monteiro, Massa, Sato, Liuzzi and Barrichello all exploring the limits of adhesion and going off course without doing damage. Albers, incidentally, will lose 10 grid places after having the Toyota engine on his Midland changed before the session following this morning’s failure.
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