Of the front runners, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen have both gone out pretty much straight off the bat. There's seven or eight cars on track now, all with softs bolted on.

Green light! Second practice is under way. 

Rio Haryanto is not messing about as he goes straight out. Keen as mustard that lad.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Jack and Jennie have been joined by our chief F1 writer Andrew Benson for second practice. Tune in now on 5 live sports extra and via this page.

Nico Rosberg doesn't look like he will be out bang on for the start of the session. He's currently hunched over a laptop with his race engineer, going through some data.

"He's having a rummage around his nose," says Jack Nicholls on 5 live sports extra.

T.M.I Jack, T.M.I.

It's Fernando Alonso's 35th birthday today and he's so far had a cake and now car balloons. He's also done pretty well on the track, having clocked the seventh quickest time in first practice.

All in all a good day for the Spaniard.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Hockenheim

FIA F1 director Charlie Whiting has been holding a media briefing in the break between sessions to explain some of the rule changes that came out of Thursday’s strategy group meeting. On the halo, the very clear line was that it has only been postponed for a year - and only because it was felt the drivers had not had enough experience with it to ensure there are no unanswered questions. It will be introduced in 2018, potentially in slightly modified form.

On other issues, the controversy over double waved yellow flags arising from Nico Rosberg’s pole lap in Hungary last weekend is going to result in sessions being red-flagged in future in similar situations. Looking at 2017, two new rules will be introduced - there will be standing re-starts after a safety car start in wet conditions; and during a race stoppage, teams will no longer be able to change their cars or tyres. This, Whiting said, is something he has been trying to persuade the teams to accept since 2010 - and pointed out that it wrecked the last few laps of the 2011 Monaco Grand Prix, when Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button were shaping up for a mega showdown on tyres of varying ages old to fresh respectively, but it was all ruined by a red flag, after which Vettel could change to new tyres.

You may think journalists do little more than feast upon the media buffet during the gap between first and second practice but not so. Andrew Benson popped along to a media brief with Charlie Whiting. Here's what he came away with from it...

BBC Radio 5 live sports extra

Jack Nicholls, Tom Clarkson and Jennie Gow had a fascinating discussion about McLaren during first practice, and they will be on air again for FP2 - which starts in around 15 minutes.

Tune in via 5 live sports extra or by clicking the 'Live coverage' tab on this page.

Graham Wright: Following the recent races are we seeing mclaren emerge as the fourth strongest team  

Image source, Getty Images

Here's a sad image. No, not sad because a chap thought it acceptable to wear dungarees and nothing else, but sad because it highlights a time when Hockenheim would be packed to the rafters with fans, many of them locals cheering on home hero Michael Schumacher.

During the great man's heyday, there would be 100,000 spectators on race day but numbers have dwindled and the last race at the circuit two years ago attracted just 50,000 fans.

Organisers are hoping for at least 60,000 this Sunday to break even.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Someone should tell these chaps to get to where Andrew is sitting. Bit more atmosphere there. 

Hello! Welcome along to our coverage of second practice for the German Grand Prix.

If you missed the action this morning, fear not, because there wasn't much action. It was a largely uneventful session but a pleasing one for Nico Rosberg as he looks to wrest back control of the championship. He finished fastest, three tenths of a second quicker than Lewis Hamilton.

Image source, Getty Images

Have we just stumbled across the latest action at the World Gurning Championships (I've checked, they do exist!), external?

Nope, it's Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton in Germany, perhaps mulling their respective fortunes this season.

They have certainly fluctuated, with Rosberg having the better of early stages of the season, while Hamilton has come on strong in the middle part.

Whoever wins this weekend will go into the summer break on a high. So who will be smiling (or, at least not gurning) come Sunday evening?

I'll leave you with a report on first practice and see you again in a little over 90 minutes.

Ta ra for now.

It'll soon be time for us to park things up for lunch. Second practice gets under way at 13:00 BST, which means we will reboot our live coverage at 12:30 BST.

First blood to Nico Rosberg? 

As Tom quite rightly points out, it is far too early to draw any conclusions about whether Rosberg has the advantage this weekend but he will no doubt be determined to respond immediately to Lewis Hamilton taking the lead in the championship. 

Rosberg might say it doesn't change anything, but he will not want his team-mate to increase his advantage heading into the summer break.

I bet it was a Pidgey. 

It's always a Pidgey.

Wayne: Hamilton running with a lower engine setting this weekend because of its age? Surely Rosberg's race to lose now.

Image source, Getty Images