Hockenheim (Germany) (AFP)

In hot heat, Ferrari dominated the free practice of the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim on Friday, but the drop in temperatures and rain expected Saturday and Sunday should not do the business of Scuderia.

Sebastian Vettel, looking for redemption in front of his home crowd after going off the track last year when he seemed to have won the race, was the fastest in the morning.

His Monegasque teammate Charles Leclerc imitated him in the afternoon, clocking 1 minute 13 seconds 449/1000, the fastest of the day. 124/1000 ahead of the German and 146/1000 ahead of the British Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes).

These results, however, give little clue as to the outcome of qualifying Saturday at 15:00 local (13:00 GMT) and the race Sunday at 15:10 (13:10).

Temperatures must fall below 30 degrees and thunderstorms are expected, which is not to displease the Silver Arrows.

If Mercedes did not experience a cooling problem on Friday, unlike Austria at the end of June, its cars still perform better under mild weather.

- "Be responsive to the weather" -

And Hamilton, leader of the Championship with 39 points ahead of his Finnish teammate Valtteri Bottas, 87 on the Dutch Max Verstappen (Red Bull), 100 on Vettel and 103 on Leclerc, "love the rain". For him, "it's a good thing whatever the day," he has often proved on the track.

The Briton, who makes one of his best debut season in F1, has in his sights an eighth victory - already - in eleven races. For his stable, it would be the tenth (Verstappen won in Austria)!

"It's hard to draw conclusions because we do not know what compromises Mercedes and Red Bull had to make with the heat," said Vettel late in the day. "It would have been nice to have a race as hot, but we did our homework and we hope to transpose that Saturday and Sunday."

"The weekend will be completely different, with perhaps rain, it will be very dynamic and responsive to the weather with the settings of the car," says Bottas.

Free practice 3 Saturday at 12:00 (10:00) should allow to take some benchmarks.

- Gasly in the barriers -

The day was also marked by an impressive outing of Pierre Gasly in free practice 2. Struck against the barriers at the last corner, he seriously damaged the left flank of his car.

After a disappointing start to the season at Red Bull, the Frenchman seemed to have his head out of the water at the British Grand Prix in mid-July. Let's hope that this incident, which he refused to comment on in front of the press, does not go back to it.

"Fortunately, I did not use my engine or my racing gearbox (whose changes would have caused penalties on the starting grid, edn), he said in a statement from his team. I want to apologize to the guys in the garage who have a long night of repairs in front of them. "

His compatriot Romain Grosjean, criticized as often since last year for his performances and errors on the track, is doing well with two encouraging top 10 (8th in the morning and 6th in the afternoon).

These performances will certainly give his Haas team some grit, which seeks to understand why the car he drives, the one used at the beginning of the season, was more consistent than his current version, left in the hands of his Danish teammate Kevin Magnussen. .

Answers, Racing Point seems to have found after a slump from Spain in May. Developments this weekend on his cars are currently paying, with the Canadian Lance Stroll 9th ​​in the morning and 7th in the afternoon and the Mexican Sergio Pérez 11th and 10th.

© 2019 AFP