Hamilton loses track as weather hampers qualifying

Following heavy rain in the morning that left puddles of standing water on the Hockenheim track, first practice caught out a number of drivers, the most high profile of whom was Hamilton.

The 25-year-old did not set his first timed lap until 65 minutes into a 90-minute session that did not last too much longer after that. In fairness, Hamilton did nothing wrong as he simply hit the rev limiter as he emerged out of a slow corner, sending his wheels into a spin on a damp part of a track that was drying at that stage.

That sent him sliding across the wet grass, and with understandably no traction he ploughed nose first into a barrier. The impact, although not severe, was enough to send him spinning around, resulting in a second collision with the tyre wall that damaged his left-rear wheel.

It was not until just over four hours later, with 78 minutes of the second session already expired, that Hamilton finally emerged back on track, managing to complete only 10 laps.

In his short outing, however, he managed the seventh quickest time with a lap of one minute 17.004secs, finishing seven tenths of a second behind Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.

"It's been quite an interesting day for me," said Hamilton, at least managing a smile in the circumstances.

"Obviously I damaged the car quite heavily and I was a little bit upset with myself.

"That was because I know how hard the guys have worked during the week, only for us to then get to the track and for me to total the car after a few laps.

"I managed to get back out, it was only seven tenths off, but it was good to get out and overcome the difficulty I had in the morning. At least I've something to work on now. I've a good feeling of where the car is, and hopefully we can make some good set-up changes overnight."

Team-mate Jenson Button was down in 15th, but primarily as he acted as guinea pig in the afternoon and covered most of the testing that should have been shared with Hamilton.

Ferrari appear strong with Alonso quickest with a lap of 1:16.265, just 0.029secs ahead of home hero Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull.

Their team-mates Felipe Massa and Mark Webber were third and fourth, with the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher fifth and sixth.

Nick Wirth, Yorkshire-based Virgin Racing's technical director, declared himself satisifed with a positive start to the weekend after drivers Timo Glock and Luca Di Grassi put in plenty of laps in adverse weather.

"Both drivers and their engineers adapted their respective programmes well to the changing conditions," said Wirth.