Red Bull's Max Verstappen quickest in FP2
Sister Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo fastest in FP1 but will start race from back after engine penalties
McLaren and Williams cars struggling at back of pack
Sebastian Vettel leads the drivers' championship, Lewis Hamilton second
Jolyon Palmer
Former Renault driver on BBC Radio 5 live
It is not what anyone should be seeing, a huge part of the car coming off and it was literally on the pit exit and it just flew off.
Giovinazzi needs to be out there doing laps, so it is not helpful for him to show his credentials.
But it has not gone to plan.
A huge part of the engine cover of Giovinazzi's Sauber (well, Ericsson's Sauber) has flown off. Not too sure if that is something he has done or a team error.
Anyway, back to the pits for Giovinazzi.
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A watching brief for Marcus Ericsson so far today as Antonio Giovinazzi takes his place.
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A slow start to proceedings, but we're getting going now. Max Verstappen is still the quickest, followed by Valtteri Bottas, Kimi Raikkonen, Kevin Magnussen and Lewis Hamilton.
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Your reaction to the Mercedes contracts
Ope: Hamilton's deal is worth every penny, and above all Bottas as a 'junior partner' clearly suits him more than a Rosberg-like competitive partner!
Euan: Mercedes would have been a lot better with dropping Hamilton and signing someone like Alonso or Ricciardo. Much cheaper and pretty much just as good, if not better in Alonso's case. Bottas once again getting the short end of the stick as well.
Kayleigh: Can Bottas’s luck change now he’s signed a new contract?
Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer
Remember Fernando Alonso’s complaints about Kevin Magnussen over the radio during their battle at the British Grand Prix? Magnussen does. “He does complain a lot on the radio,” the Haas driver said on Thursday. "But, I mean, we see it in other sports as well. Even great athletes like Neymar and stuff, they exaggerate a bit.”
Alonso’s response? “I read that. I don’t care. I am two-times world champion and he is trying to get points. I cannot answer everyone’s comments.” In other words - bite me.
Image source, Getty ImagesSpeaking of Magnussen...
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Not much going on the track at the moment. Max Verstappen the only man to set a time, having shaved it down to 1:15.055 now. Let's have a quick look at a few tweets posted by our F1 drivers in the build-up to Germany.
Who had 15 minutes on the first-problems-for-Williams-sweepstake?
The front wing on Lance Stroll's Williams is being replaced. No noticeable damage to the old one, maybe they're just checking out a few things.
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Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer
Williams face what could be a crucial weekend in Germany. All year they have been battling a fundamental aerodynamic flaw with their car - the rear floor suffers a stall, or catastrophic loss of downforce, when they turn the steering wheel, a problem that is worse the longer the corner.
A specific problem with a new rear wing tried at Silverstone last time out made it worse than ever, and forced the abandonment of that wing. This weekend, they are introducing a new front wing which they hope will solve the problem.
Driver Sergey Sirotkin said: ”It doesn't give us any more lap time on paper. But what we really expect all of these bits to do is to give us a stable platform. As a consequence, it will give the drivers more confidence, but it all starts with getting the airflow stable to any other external situations. It is quite important, because we've been working on these bits for quite a long time. We do really hope that it will do this [provide more predictability]. And if not, it will mean that we have some deeper correlation problem which will take more time to solve - and which are obviously more painful for the team.”
Image source, Getty ImagesYour reaction to the Mercedes contracts
Chris Marsh aka Rek Arathor: Good solid choice by Mercedes to keep both Hamilton and Bottas for 2019. It would be interesting to see the price difference in contracts to see if it is "worth" it. Can you put a price on having arguably the best driver on the grid?
Amit Mandalia: Is it reading too much into it that Bottas only has a one-year deal?
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Anyone out in Germany this weekend? Always appreciate some pictures if you fancy sending them over. #bbcf1 if you fancy showing your photography skills to the world.
A bad, but expected start to Daniel Ricciardo's weekend. To the back you go, well, on Sunday. He has not got on the podium in the past four races and will have to go some to get on it in Germany.
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"Light wind throughout the lap," Max Verstappen is told. Not the most exciting bit of team radio we will get this weekend, but there you go.
This weekend's colours from Pirelli. White for the mediums, yellow for the softs and purple for the ultrasofts. Verstappen has opted for the mediums to start with.
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Max Verstappen is the first to set a time for us. Thanks, Max.
One minute 16.526 seconds is our opening mark. It will be beaten.
Image source, Getty ImagesWe are expecting Daniel Ricciardo to be picking up a grid penalty this weekend for fresh engine parts. Not confirmed yet, but we will bring you those details when we get them.
Image source, Reuters