For the BMW WilliamsF1 team the opening Friday practice for the 2005 European Grand Prix would see Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber set times that would see them seventh and eighth fastest.

With the teams having just completed a Grand Prix weekend in Monaco only four days ago they were all back at it with the opening practice session for the 2005 European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. The main talking point was the return of the BAR team after their two race ban by the FIA. With the return of BAR there would be twenty four cars practicing today and with the start of the session it would be Minardi's Christijan Albers who was first out onto the track. Albers would be joined by many drivers carrying out installation laps but it would be Toyota's Ricardo Zonta who would be first to take to the track to set a time. Zonta's first lap was a rime of 1m:35.864. Alex Wurz would also come out and he would move into first with a time of 1m:34.592.

With twenty minutes of the session run the order was Wurz leading Zonta, Klien and Jordan's Tiago Monteiro. Jordan's new test driver Montagny would move into fourth in his first run in the Jordan. The first half of the session was the usual quite affair with drivers limiting the amount of track time that their engines have to contend with.

The first of the regular drivers to come out was Renault's Fernando Alonso. He was joined by BAR's Jenson Button and Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello. Rubens would get down to setting a time very quickly and would go fastest with a time of 1m:34.081. Button would return to his garage, while Rubens would improve with a 1m:33.272. While Rubens was out team-mate Michael Schumacher would also take to the circuit. Michael would move into second with a time of 1m:33.318, but on his next lap would improve with a 1m:32.796 to be four tenths up on Rubens.

Neither of the BMW WilliamsF1 drivers had come out as we neared the final fifteen minutes of the session. Toyota's Jarno Trulli was now in fourth with a 1m:34.212, while Wurz would return to the track. Zonta was now fastest in sector one, finishing his lap with a time of 1m:32.859 to move into second. Montagny and Renault's Giancarlo Fisichella would almost have a coming together. Wurz would start a quick lap and was fastest in sector one by by over half a second. He would maintain this through the rest of his lap and would go fastest.

Joining Wurz was Raikkonen who was in fifth, Nick Heidfeld who was in sixth and Juan Pablo Montoya in seventh. WilliamsF1' Mark Webber was in eighth and Christain Klien had improved to be in ninth. With the session coming to a close their would be the usual flurry of activity as drivers came out to set a time. Montoya would improve with a 1m:32.873 to be in third.

Zonta would improve with a 1m:32.726, while Michael Schumacher would pit, and Alex Wurz lowered his time with a 1m:31.670. With the end of the session Wurz would finish on top from Michael Schumacher, Zonta, Montoya, Barrichello, Raikkonen, Heidfeld and Webber. Both the Renaults and BAR's failed to complete a timed lap in the session. Both BAR drivers are having to use engines that were used at Imola so they are very mindful of the fact that they have to make the engine last.