Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro ended the first day of practice for the European Grand Prix in first and third places with Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa respectively. Summer still refuses to be a friend of Formula 1 this season and while the morning session was run in dry and cool conditions, heavy rain hit the track during the lunch break between the two ninety minute sessions, meaning the track was still slightly slippery for the start of the afternoon practice. But the more serious problem, which affected everyone was that the wind changed direction from the morning and made the cars harder to drive through the corners when gusts of wind affected the handling.

While the winner of the last two grands prix topped the final time sheet, it was championship leader Lewis Hamilton and his McLaren-Mercedes who was second ahead of the Scuderia's Brazilian driver. As we have seen so often this season it was a Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro - McLaren Mercedes lock-out for the top places, as reigning world champion, Fernando Alonso was fourth. Toyota completed the top six today, with Ralf Schumacher ahead of Jarno Trulli. One new name on the time sheets today, as Markus Winkelhock, son of the late F1 driver Manfred Winkelhock, took over the Spyker seat vacated by Christijan Albers. He was the slowest driver today.

Kimi Raikkonen: "I am reasonably happy with today. We have proved we are competitive in pure terms on this circuit and we will have to wait for tomorrow to understand exactly where we are compared to our main rivals. I think there is still room for improvement in terms of the handling of the car which is nevertheless good on both types of tyre we have here. The weather, especially the wind, made the second session a bit complicated but this problem was the same for everyone."

Felipe Massa: "Overall, it has been quite a positive day. I think we have a competitive car. Clearly, we expect a very tight fight with our closest rivals, but we are up for it.
 

"We improved the set up of the car from the first session to the second, but we still have some work to do, especially in terms of performance over the first timed lap. It's a shame that on my last run on new softer tyres I had a bit of traffic in the first part of my first lap which cost me time. This afternoon, the track was still slippery at first because of the rain and then the wind made it difficult to drive."

Luca Baldisserri: "The usual Friday programme was disrupted by the changing weather. We were expecting the second free practice session to be wet and so we had planned in the first session to compare the two types of tyre available to us this weekend. At this point the track conditions were definitely not at their best. Then, in the second session, when we ran entirely on dry tyres, the wind came into play, complicating the situation. In any case, we have shown we are competitive, although we are aware we still have to improve, both in terms of first lap performance and over a longer run, especially with the softer tyres. All in all, we have a good starting point from which to work forward over the rest of the weekend."

Free practice - First session: K. Raikkonen: 2nd 1.32.751 24 laps chassis 262; F. Massa 6th 1.33.605 24 laps chassis 260; Weather: air temperature 20/21 °C, track temperature 23/25 °C, cloudy.

Free Practice - Second session: K. Raikkonen: 1st 1.33.339 28 laps chassis 262; F. Massa 3rd 1.33.590 27 laps chassis 260; Weather: air temperature 20 °C, track temperature 24/25 °C, from overcast to slightly cloudy.