Seventh and thirteenth quickest respectively at the end of the second hour of free practice this afternoon, both Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher felt the F2005 was definitely in better shape than in recent races. “There is no doubt that the Nurburgring suits us better than Monaco,” reckoned the Brazilian, who enjoyed a trouble-free day. As for the German driver, he lost track time this afternoon because of a minor electrical problem, but was happy with his speed in the morning.

As is often a case on Friday, the two names at the top of the time sheet belong to drivers who have no concerns about conserving tyres and engines, as they only have to last for today’s two hour-long sessions. Alex Wurz was quickest for McLaren-Mercedes, followed by the Toyota of Ricardo Zonta. Nick Heidfeld was third for Williams-BMW ahead of the McLaren-Mercedes duo of Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen, while the second Williams-BMW of Mark Webber completing the top six.

All being well, there should be a full complement of twenty cars on the grid on Sunday, as the BAR-Honda team is back in action, after its two race ban, following its disqualification for a technical rule infringement in the San Marino Grand Prix. One minor change on the driver front this weekend: in the Jordan camp, the role of third driver has been taken by Franck Montagny, who used to do the same job for Renault last year. The Frenchman replaces Robert Doornbos. The biggest surprise of the weekend so far has been the weather. Usually, the Nurburgring gives team personnel the chance to get out their sweaters and raincoats, but an unexpected heatwave has arrived in the Eifel mountains, with the ambient temperature reaching an unheard of 30 degrees.

Jean Todt: “Today was a day like any other, with the team working on car set-up and on choosing between the two types of Bridgestone tyre on offer. A problem with the electronics prevented Michael from completing his entire programme, but Rubens got through all of his. All in all, the situation seems quite good, with the car-engine-Bridgestone tyre package appearing to be competitive. Now we must carefully analyse the data we have acquired to finalise tyre and set-up choice, which will be crucial for tomorrow’s qualifying -which is now the only grid-deciding session – and for the race on Sunday.”

Michael Schumacher: “In performance terms, it looks quite good so far, as we are not so far off the times of the quickest guys, not counting the Friday-only drivers, so generally I would say it is going well this weekend. It’s a shame I had an electrical problem. It was nothing major, but there was not enough time to fix it before the end of the session.”

Rubens Barrichello: “Today, the situation looks much better than in recent races and there is no doubt that the Nurburgring suits us better than Monaco. We seem to be pretty quick here, whatever the fuel load. I think we can be very strong this weekend, but it is still too early to see where we stand compared to the others. Bridgestone has done a good job and the tyres are performing consistently.”
 
Ross Brawn: “A good day in general. The cars seem to be well balanced and the tyres are performing consistently over the first lap. We had an electrical problem on Michael’s car, which we have yet to analyse. It meant we lost the second half of the afternoon session, which was a shame. However, we got some good work done on the tyre front and now we can analyse the data tonight to decide on which type of tyre to use for qualifying and the race.”
 

Free practice - First session: Michael Schumacher: 2nd 1.32.578 10 laps chassis 245; Rubens Barrichello: 10th 1.32.984 11 laps chassis 246; Temperatures: air 26 °C, track 34/38 °C

Free practice – Second session: Rubens Barrichello: 7th 1.32.143 19 laps chassis 246; Michael Schumacher: 13th 1.33.242 5 laps chassis 245; Temperatures: air 28/29 °C, track 43 °C

Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro's Technical Director, Ross Brawn met the press this afternoon and began by looking back to the team’s Monaco performance. “Looking at the overall situation, it is clear we had a very quick car in Monaco, as proved by Michael setting the fastest race lap, with about 50 kilos of fuel on board,” began the Englishman. "That is a pretty impressive performance, but so far, we have not been quick enough at all the right times and of course, in Monaco, you have to be quick in qualifying and then defend your position in the race. We almost did the opposite last weekend!”

With all the talk about tyre performance over a single lap in qualifying, Brawn was asked to go into the detail of the problem the Scuderia has experienced so far this season: “One of the challenges we are facing is getting the tyre to work for one quick qualifying lap,” he confirmed. “Since the rules have changed, we have developed tyres that have to last the whole race and in achieving that, we have lost some of our first lap performance. We are now trying to develop tyres that give us back that first lap performance. Michael was able to go very quickly after his refuelling stop (in Monaco,) because the weight of the fuel helps put heat into the tyre and these conditions our tyres are extremely good. But in qualifying, we are not getting the whole car-tyre package to work properly.”

As from this race, grid positions are decided by drivers doing a single timed lap in just one session. “One of the benefits of this change to qualifying is that it might help us,” reckoned Brawn. “If necessary, we can compromise the race strategy, moving away from the theoretical ‘perfect race’ to put more emphasis on qualifying and then hope we have enough race performance to compensate for the compromised strategy. But although the new qualifying format might help, at the same time, we and Bridgestone are trying to find technical solutions to help.”

As for Sunday, Brawn allowed himself to be optimistic. “Today the car was quite good and this was a good race for us last year and first impressions show that we seem to have found a bit more performance on that first lap. We will only really know where we stand tomorrow, when the track has more rubber on it.”

Inevitably, Brawn was also asked to add his opinion to all the discussion regarding the final lap in Monaco, when Michael overtook Rubens. “They have been team-mates for so long that one small incident will not harm the relationship,” he stated. “In my opinion, the whole thing is just a storm in a teacup.”