Germany – Free Practice 1: Ferraris Dance in the Sun

The heatwave has not (yet) left Germany, and the temperature had already reached 32°C in the air and 40°C on the track when the single-seaters took off for the first free practice session of the German Grand Prix.

Many teams have arrived in Germany with upgrades. Williams decided to give its improvements to Robert Kubica while George Russell retained the old package in order to make direct comparisons between the two. Haas followed the same strategy by installing the upgrades on Kevin Magnussen’s car while Romain Grosjean drove again with the same package used in Australia.

Unfortunately for the American team, this session was quickly disrupted as the Danish driver saw his car lose all engine power and stopped on the track after only 19 minutes. This led to the session being interrupted by a red flag while the car was evacuated. Since it was in the penultimate turn, it was towed with the driver at the wheel back to the garage.

FP1 didn’t start well for Haas and Kevin Magnussen

But at least he managed to get a lift back to the garage 😉#F1 #GermanGP 🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/2jvk3LLFxH

— Formula 1 (@F1) July 26, 2019

This allowed the team to repair the car without losing the entire session, as Günther Steiner revealed that it was only a sensor issue and not a problem with the car. He was therefore able to return to the track very quickly.

After the first series of relay, we found the two Mercedes cars with their special livery in the top two positions while Max Verstappen once again slipped between Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel. It’s an even more remarkable performance given that the Dutchman was on mediums while the Ferraris were on softs.

However, shortly after the mid-session, the Scuderia drivers raised their game to take the best times, with Sebastian Vettel ahead of Charles Leclerc. The advantage was clearly in the first two sectors where their engine power made the difference, while Lewis Hamilton remained faster in the last twisting sector.

At the end of the session, Valtteri Bottas had a small scare by missing his braking in the penultimate corner. However, he managed to get out of the gravel trap without touching the wall.

CLASSIFICATION: END OF FP1

A ScuderiaFerrari 1-2, with Sebastian Vettel setting the early pace on his home race weekend #F1 #GermanGP 🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/eYXxwl7idt — Formula 1 (@F1) July 26, 2019

From our special correspondent at Hockenheim