Practice 3 Report - Light tanks defeat heavy armour

The first Saturday sessions for the German Grand Prix created a most unusual list of times with Red Bull Racing's Christian Klien somehow ending the session with the fastest. One can only presume that the Austrian was not running with a huge load of fuel as the Red Bull cars have not been very good this year. Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello once again showed that the Hondas are a bit better than they have been at recent races, although we will see in the qualifying session whether or not this is a fair indication of an improvement. The team says there have been big changes at the cars will be quick.

Felipe Massa was fourth fastest in his Ferrari ahead of David Coulthard, Giancarlo Fisichella, Nick Heidfeld and Kimi Raikkonen. Michael Schumacher was ninth quickest but would have been fastest if he had not back off for a yellow flag at the final corner after Sakon Yamamoto shunted his new Super Aguri. Yamamoto nonetheless ended the session faster than Takuma Sato, a decent showing for the Japanese new boy.

The top 10 was rounded off by Pedro de la Rosa in his McLaren ahead of Fernando Alonso's Renault, Tonio Liuzzi's Toro Rosso and Scott Speed in a similar car. Williams were next with Nico Rosberg just beating Mark Webber (who had a spin) and Ralf Schumacher.

Jarno Trulli suffered what looked like an engine failure and may have to take a drop of 10 places on the grid after qualifying. This fate has already befallen Christijan Albers who suffered an engine problem on Friday.