For the BMW WilliamsF1 team the opening Friday practice for the 2005 German Grand Prix would again see both Nick Heidfeld and Mark Webber set times that would see them down the order in fifteenth and sixteenth positions respectively. This was a repeat of their opening Friday practice at the British Grand Prix. Unfortunately things did not get any better for the team at Silverstone, so will the results be the same at Hockenheim?

The next round of the 2005 Formula One championship is the German Grand Prix at the Hockenheimring. Prior to this weekend Minardi had replaced Patrick Friesacher with ex Jordan driver Robert Doornbos. Replacing Doornbos at Jordan was Danish driver Nicolas Kiesa.

The opening practice session would get under way with Nicolas Kiesa the first driver out onto the track, joined by McLaren's Alex Wurz. Theis pair would be joined by several other drivers including the Toyota's of Zonta and Ralf Schumacher and McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen. They would complete their installation laps and return to their pits.

Toyota's Ricardo Zonta would be the first driver to set a time with a lap time of 1m:24.730. Joining Zonta was McLaren's Friday driver Alex Wurz. Zonta would improve his time with a 1m:22.240 but Wurz would easily beat his time with a 1m:19.122.

With fifteen minutes 0f the session run Wurz had improved with a 1m:17.376, while Zonta was down to a 1m:18.805. Jenson Button would start a lap but would pull into the pitlane. Red Bull's Tonio Liuzzi was out and would start his first lap.
Wurz would improve with a time of 1m:17.199. Kiesa's first lap would be a 1m:25.664. Liuzzi would se a time of 1m:20.573. He would improve with a
1m:19.352. With nearly twenty minutes of the session run both Doornbos and Jordan's Narain Karthikeyan would come out.

Karthikeyan would set a time of 1m:24.645 to see him move into fifth. The order was Wurz followed by Zonta, Liuzzi, Karthikeyan, Kiesa, and Doornbos. Minardi's Christijan Albers and Ferrari's Michael Schumacher would come out for their first runs. Liuzzi would move into second with a 1m:18.429, while Michael was in third with a 1m:18.700. Team-mate Rubens Barrichello would also come out.

Michael would improve his time with a 1m:17.635, +0.5 behind Wurz. Zonta was in third and Albers sixth. Zonta would move ahead of Michael with a 1m:17.551. He would improve further with a time of 1m:17.096 to go fastest. His next lap would see him set a time of 1m:16.657. In response to this Wurz would return to the track with half of the session run.

Wurz's first lap would see him set a time of 1m:16.857 to move into second. His next lap would see a time of 1m:16.631 from Wurz to move ahead of Zonta. He would improve further with a time of 1m:16.410. Jordan's Tiago Monteiro was now in sixth with a time of 1m:19.971.

For the first time in the session both Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld would take to the track. They were joined by Raikkonen. Again Wurz would set a quicker time, a lap of 1m:15.859. Mark Webber's first lap would be a 1m:18.811, good only for sixth. Kimi would move into second with a time of 1m:16.560. Nick Heidfeld sets a time of 1m:20.416 to be in ninth.

As the session wound down the track would see drivers flood out of the pit lane. BAR's Takuma Sato was in fifth with a time of 1m:17.929. Mark would take this spot from Sato with a time of 1m:17.923, but Sato would move ahead of Mark with a time of 1m:16.825. Zonta would move ahead of Wurz with a time of 1m:15.518, to be fastest. Jenson Button was sixth on his first lap with a time of 1m:17.887. Only the Sauber's and Renault's had yet to set a time. Sato was in fourth with a 1m:16.795.

With twenty minutes of the session remaining the order was Zonta followed by Wurz, Raikkonen, Sato, Montoya, Button, and Michael Schumacher. Button was able to move into sixth with a time of 1m:16.849. But it would be Alex Wurz who would set a time that would put him a second up on Zonta, a 1m:14.496. Alex would lower this further now setting a time of 1m:14.277. Michael Schumacher was now in fourth with a 1m:16.259. Button was in third with a 1m:15.851.

As for the BMW WilliamsF1 drivers things were not looking encouraging but it was early days. Mark was in sixteenth with a time of 1m:17.850. Kimi would take the third spot from Jenson with a time of 1m:15.634. Team-mate Montoya was in fifth. Mark would improve with a 1m:17.689, while Nick was able to beat his team-mate with a time of 1m:17.665. Red Bull's Christian Klien would have an off with three minutes of the session remaining when he made a error at turn nine but was able to return to the track

So with the end of the session the order was Zonta, Raikkonen, Button, Montoya, Michael Schumacher, Barrichello, Liuzzi, Sato, and Ralf Schumacher. Nick and Mark were in fifteenth and sixteenth positions. Neither Renault driver was to set a time in the session.