With the Ferrari team having the opportunity to secure the Constructors title at the German Grand Prix the drivers and teams would prepare for the first Friday practice session. For the BMW WilliamsF1 team this weekend would see test driver Antonio Pizzonia take the seat of injured Ralf Schumacher. Several teams including Toyota F1, debuting their TF104B, and Jaguar, with aerodynamics improvements, would be introducing changes for this race. Jordan's Timo Glock would be the first driver out onto the circuit. He would be joined by the majority of the field completing their installation lap.

Toyota's Ricardo Zonta and BAR's Anthony Davidson would be the first drivers to look at setting a time. Zonta would seta time of 1m:20.561 to go fastest. He would improve on this with a 1m:19.776. A lap of 1m:21.076 for Glock would see him a considerable margin of the early pace.

Davidson would se a time of 1m:18.840 to go fastest. He would also improve with a time of 1m:18.181. Zonta would improve to a 1:19.612 while Jaguar's Bjorn Wirdheim would set a time of 1m:19.172. Joining Zonta was team-mate Olivier Panis. He would quickly move to the top of the times with a 1m:17.432. Out for his first lap was Pizzonia and he would finish with the fourth fastest time.

Sauber's Felipe Massa was close to the top, with a 1m:17.769 to move into second. Pizzonia would improve to move into second with a 1m:17.314, while Zonta went fastest again with a 1m:17.264. Now it would be the turn of WilliamsF1 team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya to set a time. He would be quicker by a considerable margin finishing his lap with a time of 1m:16.795 to go
fastest.

Now it was the turn of Michael Schumacher to start his first flying lap. He would be joined by Rubens Barrichello. Michael would stun the crowd by setting a time of 1m:15.864 on his first attempt. Barrichello could not match his team-mate setting a time of 1m:17.745 good enough only for seventh. Davidson would improve to now be second with a 1m:16.126. Rubens would go third with a 1m:16.493.

So with half the session completed Michael had certainly stamped his authority on would move into fourth. Giancarlo Fisichella would move up the order to fifth with a 1m:16.732. He would improve with a 1m:16.451 to be third. David Coulthard would set a time of 1m:16.916 to be seventh. yet to set a time was McLaren team-mate Kimi Raikkonen and Jaguars Mark Webber. But proceedings would come to a stop with a red flag when Timo Glock smashed his front wing of his Jordan after hitting a kerb in the final sector. It would require work to clean up the debris.

With eighteen minutes left of the session the cars would return to the track and it would be BAR's Anthony Davidson who would go to the top of the rimes with a great 1m:15.756. Zonta now would also challenge for a top time. He would move into third with a 1m:16.340. Pizzonia would improve to eighth with a 1m:16.845, to be just a tenth behind Juan Pablo.

Finally Kimi Raikkonen would come out and he would quickly move up the order to third with a 1m:16.318. Panis was now sixth. Anthony Davidson would stop out on the circuit with some sort of technical problem with his BAR. So despite a least minute by Michael effort Davidson would remain at the top of the times.