23/07/2010
NEWS STORY
Dani Clos took control of today's free practice session despite the wet conditions and held the lead only briefly before taking it back in the final minutes. In spite of their efforts, ART racers Jules Bianchi and Sam Bird could not deprive Clos of his top spot while his Racing Engineering teammate Christian Vietoris claimed P3 at the chequered flag.
Although Bianchi set the early pace, it was GP2 returnee Romain Grosjean who subsequently showed the way, but Clos was soon faster than anyone else. While the two Frenchmen battled hard to try and better the Spaniard's best lap time, the rest of the field were busy managing the 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 over, 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 as Adrian Zaugg's incident at Turn 17 proved. The Trident man lost control of his car and had to retire. In the closing minutes, Bird kept improving in sectors 1 and 3, enough to claim the third best lap time, but he was then pushed back two spots by Bianchi and series leader Pastor Maldonado.
While Grosjean, Bianchi, Maldonado and Bird were fighting hard to better Clos' quickest time, it was Vietoris who eventually went quick enough to place him in grab P3 at the chequered flag.
Since the German weather promises more rain this afternoon, it is safe to bet that the qualifying session will be one not to be missed.