The start of the opening Friday practice session at Magny-Cours would see the usual rush of drivers coming out to complete their installation lap but it would not be until twenty five minutes into the session that a time was set. It would be AT&T Williams driver Nico Rosberg who would set the first time with a 1m:19.217. Neither of the Ferrari's had yet to come out. Bourdais was now second with a 1m:20.340. For Nico this race will see him get a ten grid place penalty for his involvement in the pit lane accident in Canada. Nico would set his time on the harder of the two tyres available. Nico would improve with a 1m:18.331. Team-mate Kazuki Nakajima had joined Nico out on the track.

Kazuki's first time was a 1m:19.319. Vettel would move to the top of the times with a 1m:17.268. Nico was now in third with a 1m:18.205 followed by Kazuki with a 1m:18.634. Vettel would improve setting a 1m:16.838. Piquet was second followed by Bourdais as Nico pitted. Trulli had come out and on his first lap would move into second with a 1m:17.295. Coulthard was now in fourth as other drivers come out for their first timed laps. Toyota's Timo Glock was now in fourth with a 1m:17.886. The Toyota team was displaying a blank band on their cars in memory of former Toyota boss Ove Anderson who was killed in a rally accident.

Coulthard was now second with a 1m:17.234. Kazuki had also pitted with his time of 1m:18.438 good enough only for eighth as this time. Both Ferrari's were now out on the track with under fifty five minutes remaining. Kovalainen's first lap would see him set a time of 1m:17.572 moving into fourth. His next lap would see him fastest with a 1m:16.552. Nico and Kazuki were now in ninth and tenth. Massa was now fastest with a 1m:16.519. Team-mate Raikkonen was now in third with a 1m:16.612. Button was now in eleventh pushing Nico and Kazuki down to twelfth and thirteenth. Nico had returned to the track as Hamilton moved into fourth with a 1m:16.738. Barrichello was in ninth.

It was now Hamilton's turn to move to the top of the times with a 1m:16.002. Kovalainen was now second with a 1m:16.055. Raikkonen had moved ahead of Massa and into third with a 1m:16.073. Massa had improved his time with a 1m:16.157 was now now in fourth. Alonso was now in fifth. Kovalainen and Raikkonen had both pitted. Nico was now in twelfth with a 1m:18.0083, some 2.08 seconds behind the quickest time. Nico would pit while seventeenth placed Kazuki was back out. Kubica would move ahead of Alonso and into fifth, 1m:16.571. Team-mate Heidfeld would make his first quick run and it would see him move from twentieth and into tenth.

Nico would join Kazuki out on the track with Kazuki and Nico in fourteenth and fifteenth. Heidfeld would improve to be in eighth, 1m:16.894. Nico had again pitted. The top six were also back in their pits with thirty five minutes remaining in the session. Vettel was in a strong seventh for the Torro Rosso driver. Nico was back out as Kazuki would pit. Nico had set a time of 1m:17.673, improving his time but still seeing him down in fourteenth. Piquet would improve to now be in tenth, 1m:17.128. Massa and Alonso were back out on the track. They had joined eighteenth placed Webber. Nico had pitted. Massa would improve his time to see him move ahead of Hamilton. His next lap would see him make another gain with a 1m:15.418. Nico was down in fourteenth and in his pit while seventeenth placed Kazuki was back out. The top nine were all back out on the track with twenty five minutes left in the session.

Trulli was now in seventh, 1m:16.774. Vettel was still in the top ten in eighth. The order was Massa from Hamilton, Kovalainen, Raikkonen, Kubica, Alonso, Trulli, Vettel, Heidfeld, and Piquet still in tenth. Neither Williams driver had et to show any real signs of pace as they both returned to the track. Kazuki was 2.642 seconds behind Massa's time, a massive margin to make up. Nico was 2.2 seconds off Massa's time. With fifteen minutes remaining there were only a handful of drivers out on the track, Nico was one while Kazuki had again pitted. Nico would pit with under ten minutes remaining. Both Hamilton and Raikkonen would come back out. With the final minutes counting down most of the field were back out for their final runs. Kazuki was amongst them. Nico would join him with under five minutes left.

Massa would improve his time with a 1m:15.306 to be 0.696 ahead of Hamilton. Only Sutil was now in the pits. Kazuki would improve his time with a 1m:17.696 but was still down in seventeenth. Nico was now thirteenth with a 1m:17.394. Hamilton would pit without improving his time as the session came to an end. Near the end of the session Alonso would pull off the track with what looked like and engine failure and Kovalainen was lucky not to ruin his session by running wide at the Estoril corner. So for the Williams team it was a session that did little to show any encouraging signs of pace from the FW30. Maybe the next session will be better?.

Pos  Driver        Team                      Time     Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari              (B)  1:15.306  22
 2.  Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:16.002  22
 3.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes     (B)  1:16.055  20
 4.  Raikkonen     Ferrari              (B)  1:16.073  21
 5.  Kubica        BMW Sauber           (B)  1:16.377  19
 6.  Alonso        Renault              (B)  1:16.400  23
 7.  Trulli        Toyota               (B)  1:16.758  32
 8.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:16.838  27
 9.  Heidfeld      BMW Sauber           (B)  1:16.870  21
10.  Glock         Toyota               (B)  1:16.886  31
11.  Piquet        Renault              (B)  1:17.063  31
12.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:17.234  21
13.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault     (B)  1:17.269  22
14.  Rosberg       AT&T Williams-Toyota (B)  1:17.394  30
15.  Barrichello   Honda                (B)  1:17.491  25
16.  Bourdais      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   (B)  1:17.683  27
17.  Nakajima      AT&T Williams-Toyota (B)  1:17.696  25
18.  Button        Honda                (B)  1:17.928  21
19.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:18.072  27
20.  Sutil         Force India-Ferrari  (B)  1:18.673  13