| 09:50:26
| Welcome to F1-Live.com and our live coverage of the first practice session of the French Grand Prix weekend. |
| 09:52:16
| It has been a relatively quiet few weeks since the US Grand Prix. Robert Kubica returns to F1 action today for the first time since his massive crash at in Montreal. Sebastian Vettel returns to the role of BMW Sauber test and reserve driver. |
| 09:55:09
| Rumours of Ralf Schumacher being dropped by Toyota were wide of the mark as the German remains with the team at Magny Cours while Ferrari have been making the news by taking legal action against Nigel Stepney for undisclosed alleged behaviour and actions. |
| 09:56:10
| Fernando Alonso claimed yesterday that his dive towards the pit wall at the US race really was to cool his car even tough McLaren themselves saw it very differently. The battle at McLaren continues it seems. |
| 09:58:25
| Today we have two 90 minute practice sessions in which the teams will run both the soft and medium compound options on a circuit which varies in grip depending on the track surface. |
| 10:00:31
| The practice session is now underway. |
| 10:00:44
| Robert Kubica is on track in his BMW Sauber |
| 10:00:53
| As ever, they will all complete an installation lap and return to the pits for checks. |
| 10:04:02
| A number of drivers have been out and returned to the pits. |
| 10:04:29
| Alonso is on track in his McLaren |
| 10:05:25
| Webber and Coulthard join Alonso on track. Alonso has actually started a second lap in the McLaren |
| 10:06:04
| No one has set a time as yet as Hamilton and Fisichella leave the pit lane. |
| 10:07:34
| Alonso has pitted his McLaren. Button and Barrichello on track. |
| 10:08:42
| No sign yet of the Ferraro duo. |
| 10:10:09
| No track activity at the moment. Most have completed an installation lap and have returned to the pits for checks and minor setup changes. |
| 10:11:14
| The cars will have already had the basic setup completed even before this session as they have a great deal of data and simulation. |
| 10:11:30
| Anthony Davidson is on track in his Super Aguri Honda. |
| 10:14:21
| Davidson records the first lap of the day on a 1:20.2 and that is some way off the 1:16.8 recorded by Kubica in the same session a year ago. |
| 10:14:57
| Christijan Albers heads out in his Spyker Ferrari. |
| 10:15:54
| Davidson completes another lap and improves by a good margin. Albers returns to the pits. |
| 10:16:59
| Takuma Sato is on track in the sister Super Aguri Honda. He will have a ten position penalty for overtaking under yellow flags at the US GP, even though replays suggest that wasn't in fact the case. |
| 10:17:23
| Scott Speed is out in his Toro Rosso Ferrari. |
| 10:19:04
| Davidson has pitted leaving Sato and Speed on track. |
| 10:20:20
| Barrichello heads out in his Honda as Sato moves fastest ahead of Davidson who is back on track and Speed. |
| 10:21:32
| Liuzzi is out in the second STR |
| 10:22:51
| Nico Rosberg is on track in his Williams Toyota. The team are confident that they found the problem that caused his smoky exit at the USGP and that it has been solved. |
| 10:23:08
| Team-mate Alex Wurz heads out. |
| 10:24:24
| Only Massa and Raikkonen have yet to go out in this session. |
| 10:25:05
| Barrichello moves second fastest as Rosberg puts in his first timed lap and Lewis Hamilton heads out. |
| 10:25:42
| Now Barrichello moves P1 ahead of Sato, Speed amnd Liuzzi. |
| 10:26:01
| Hamilton stops. He pulls onto the grass with a mechanical problem. |
| 10:26:46
| The yellow flags are out for Hamilton's stricken McLaren Mercedes. |
| 10:27:09
| Takuma Sato has moved ahead of Barrichello who has returned to the Honda pit. |
| 10:27:29
| Alex Wurz runs off track and continues. |
| 10:28:47
| Jarno Trulli is on track for Toyota. Raikkonen and Ralf Schumacher also join the action. |
| 10:28:59
| Rosberg moves third fastest in his Williams. |
| 10:29:57
| Now Trulli moves fastest in his TF107. Toyota ran really well in the recent Silverstone test and the team claim that Mangny Cours should suit them as it is more of a base line setup for the car. |
| 10:31:03
| Button vaults second fastest in his Honda. |
| 10:31:21
| Kimi Raikkonen takes over the top spot for Ferrari. |
| 10:32:07
| Trulli regains the number one position but Raikkonen is on a faster lap once again. |
| 10:32:46
| With Hamilton out of the session with a problem, the McLaren crew will be looking over Alonso's MP4-22 to make sure there is no repeat of the problem. |
| 10:33:21
| Raikkonen is now fastest from the Toyota duo of Trulli and Schumacher. |
| 10:33:55
| Heikki Kovalainen is on track and will set the first lap for Renault shortly. Massa heads out. |
| 10:34:49
| Heidfeld moves third fastest. Kubica has so far only completed an installtion lap. |
| 10:36:23
| Raikkonen pits as Massa moves fourth fastest. |
| 10:37:36
| Massa moves second fastest to make it a Ferrari one-two. |
| 10:39:32
| After a long time in the pits, Fernando Alonso heads out. |
| 10:40:44
| Kovalainen is moving his way up the timing charts and is now into tenth position. Giancarlo Fisichella has yet to set a time. |
| 10:41:00
| Alonso moves fourth fastest. |
| 10:43:52
| Fisichella heads out in his Renault. Kubica and Sutil have yet to set a lap time. |
| 10:47:13
| The Ferrari duo are in the pits. Trulli and Alonso are on long stints and Hamilton's MP4-22 has been returned to the McLaren pit so he may get some running later in the session. |
| 10:49:02
| Alonso and Trulli have both pitted now. |
| 10:49:55
| Fisichella moves his Renault into the top ten, just behind team-mate Kovalainen. |
| 10:51:20
| Raikkonen is back out in his Ferrari. |
| 10:51:45
| Fisichella is making gains and is now ahead of Kovalainen. |
| 10:53:19
| Raikkonen moves fastest as he finds over half a second on that lap. |
| 10:54:10
| There's a suggestion of a few drops of rain in the middle of the lap. Nothing to worry about at this stage. |
| 10:55:29
| They are all running on the harder tyre at the moment as Sato vaults up the order to P6. |
| 10:56:23
| Hamilton is back out in his repaired McLaren and has the soft tyre on - perhaps looking for a fast time in case of rain. |
| 10:56:54
| Massa rejoins the circuit in the second Ferrari. |
| 10:57:35
| Hamilton's McLaren seems to still have a problem and is not up to speed. |
| 10:58:17
| Hamilton returns to the McLaren pit. |
| 10:59:24
| Almost an hour into the session and Robert Kubica heads out in his BMW Sauber. He has yet to set a time. |
| 10:59:57
| Raikkonen pits after a long stint. |
| 11:03:13
| Kubica is getting up to speed in the BMW Sauber. He did not test at Silverstone last week so these are his first laps in the car since his Canadian GP accident. |
| 11:03:49
| Hamilton is back out in his McLaren. Alonso (4th) remains in the pits. |
| 11:04:54
| Progress for Barrichello and Kubica as they both make gains. Massa closes the gap to Raikkonen and os on another fast lap. |
| 11:05:06
| Hamilton moves fifth fastest. |
| 11:05:47
| Massa trims the gap to Raikkonen to a tenth. |
| 11:06:27
| Hamilton's McLaren seems to be running cleanly at the moment. Alonso, Trulli, Kubica, Heidfeld and Schumacher on track. |
| 11:07:31
| Hamilton moves third fastest but still some nine tenths off Raikkonen who is in the pits. |
| 11:08:36
| Now Alonso moves third fastest but Ferrari have the edge in the first sector of the lap by some margin. |
| 11:11:37
| Hamilton has pitted the McLaren. Raikkonen, Alonso, Schumacher and Speed - now into the top ten - on track. |
| 11:12:07
| Christijan Albers has gone off and into the gravel at the Estoril turn. |
| 11:12:57
| Albers had a snap of oversteer and went off. He has got back onto the tarmac and continues. |
| 11:15:24
| Fisichella moves tenth fastest but Renault do not seem to be that fast today as Raikkonen improves on his own best and is now three tenths clear of Massa. |
| 11:17:51
| Heidfeld moves fifth fastest in his BMW Sauber |
| 11:18:49
| Adrian Sutil is on track. He has missed nearly all of this session. |
| 11:20:28
| Looking at the timing screen it really is team speed that is dictating the list. Ferrari, McLaren, BMW, Toyota... |
| 11:21:59
| Just over eight minutes of the session remain and it is all Ferrari at the top at the moment with a seven tenth gap back to Alonso. |
| 11:22:37
| Wurz has gone for a run on soft tyres to vault up the order. |
| 11:22:53
| Massa on a hot lap. |
| 11:23:23
| Massa improves by two tenths but remains second fastest. |
| 11:23:49
| Hamilton improves and regains fourth position from Wurz. |
| 11:24:19
| Adrian Sutil has gone off in his Spyker at the Nurburg chicane. He continues. |
| 11:24:41
| Now Rosberg vaults fourth fastest. |
| 11:25:24
| Raikkonen and Alonso in the pits. Most of the others are on track. |
| 11:27:44
| Alonso and Raikkonen back out with less than three minutes remaining. |
| 11:28:06
| Sato (14th) runs off track. |
| 11:28:29
| Massa has got very close to Raikkonen's best lap time and pits. |
| 11:28:54
| Coulthard moves fifth fastest a gain of some 11 positions. |
| 11:30:14
| The chequered flag is out. |
| 11:31:20
| So we have Kimi Raikkonen fastest from team-mate Massa, Alonso in the McLaren and Nico Rosberg. Coulthard is fifth ahead of Hamilton, Heidfeld, Wurz, Kubica and Trulli. |
