German Grand Prix practice as it happened

That's just about it from me. Here's Andrew Benson's report. Keep an eye on the site later today for video highlights and reaction. Thanks for your company and contributions as always and hope to see you back for more tomorrow. I'll be live from 9:30 BST with final practice starting at 10:00 and qualifying at 13:00. Auf Wiedersehen.

But the encouraging news is that the forecast for tomorrow has improved with dry conditions expected for final practice and qualifying before the rain returns later in the evening.

So a frustrating day all round for both fans and the teams alike. Admittedly, we got more running than we did on Friday at Silverstone, but that will be of little consolation. The teams have plenty of updates which they are keen to analyse out on track but that just hasn't been possible today...

The red flag stopped the session, but the clock still counted down which means we had now further action following Schumacher's crash. It's difficult to draw any conclusions in terms of performance from that session as the times are a result of circumstances. Even so, here's how they finished.

Unsurprisingly, the German looks pretty sheepish, but he relents and waves to the crowd. He picks up some debris from his Mercedes and drops it into the cockpit and then surveys the marshals as they haul the car up with a crane. We've seen some pretty careless marshalling this season, so I'm not surprised he's keeping an eye on them.

It looks like Schumacher lost the car before taking the kerb on the exit of 12. The German hit a puddle and his Mercedes just spun round, bouncing across the grass and into the barriers in front of a Mercedes grandstand. Oops. Now that's embarrassing.

Lewis Hamilton is out of the car with six minutes remaining. That's his session over. The Briton is 19th fastest overall, three seconds off the pace but it's difficult to take much from these times because those with the quickest times were the ones who were out on track when the track was at its driest before the rain returned.

The rain is easing off, but there's still quite a lot of spray. Pedro de la Rosa won't care about the conditions, though. I'm sure he's simply happy to be out there having missed 75 minutes of this session.

Lewis Hamilton's race engineer on team radio: "Just make sure you don't take too many risks, with the conditions…"

Well, Lewis Hamilton fails to stop the car at the hairpin and goes straight on, which suggests he's not made the right decision. But on his next lap, he's comfortably quicker than Michael Schumacher who is on the wets.

Lewis Hamilton has headed out on the intermediate tyres, while Michael Schumacher has opted for the full wets. Which is the right choice?

So Pastor Maldonado is fastest, 0.088 seconds ahead of Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel. Mark Webber is down in ninth, Lewis Hamilton 19th and Michael Schumacher - who has completed just 10 laps - 23rd.

McLaren's Jenson Button tells his team that while the track is drying out, there are still too many wet patches for dry weather tyres. A look up at the sky suggests rain is on its way...

Race Control obviously think the conditions have improved because they have enabled the DRS overtaking aid. The extra straight-line speed will see the times drop even more.

Romain Grosjean now quickest, clocking a mid-1m28 to edge in front of Jenson Button's McLaren. Sebastian Vettel is third fastest overall ahead of Pastor Maldonado and Kimi Raikkonen with 30 minutes remaining.

Probably not as Mark Webber's race engineer Ciaran Pilbeam informs his charge that the team are expecting rain within the next five minutes...

Romain Grosjean, Sebastian Vettel and then Felipe Massa take the lead in quick succession. McLaren are preparing to receive a car - could they be one of the first to try slick tyres?

It's chaos out there as each timed lap seems to be quicker than the last. Fernando Alonso now leads with a 1:31.207, three tenths ahead of Sergio Perez. BBC Radio 5 live analyst Jaime Alguersuari says it won't be long before drivers pit for slicks as a dry line forms on the track.

Now it's Michael Schumacher's turn to take the lead, dipping down into the high 1m32s, a tenth quicker then Romain Grosjean.

The track continues to dry out and improve and as a result the times are tumbling; Felipe Massa goes quickest of all, before Nico Rosberg and then Sergio Perez depose him.

And he is mighty in the final sector, too. The championship leader smashes the previous best by 1.2 seconds. Sensational stuff. His Ferrari team-mate Felipe Massa looked quick as well but the Brazilian gets held up in the final sector.

Those new boots are working nicely for Nico Rosberg who shaves another half a second of his best next time around. Fernando Alonso is looking mighty in the first two sectors, though...

Nico Rosberg team radio: "You're the only car on 'inters' at the moment. We are expecting rain in 10 minutes."

Everyone apart from Nico Rosberg is out on the full wet - blue marked - tyres at the moment. Sergio Perez gets it all wrong at the hairpin, locking the front tyres and driving straight on. Fortunately for him, there's acres of run-off and the mistake goes unpunished.

A number of wobbly moments out there as Sebastian Vettel and then Paul di Resta hit one of the many rivers streaming across the track. They can cause aquaplaning and get the tail seriously wagging.

Nico Rosberg goes quickest in every sector to take top spot with a 1:39.021, four tenths quicker than anyone else. Jean-Eric Vergne drops to second, ahead of Paul di Resta and Mark Webber. No sign of Hamilton, Button, Alonso or Massa yet...

Vergne does hook everything up on his next lap, though, and goes quickest of all with a 1:39.843, 0.137 seconds clear of Nico Rosberg. Sebastian Vettel looks strong in his Red Bull, but he can't get on the power out of the final corner and crosses the line third fastest, 0.870 seconds off the pace.

Moments later the Frenchman, who is really fighting the car in these conditions, misses his braking point at Turn Eight, runs wide but lives to fight another day.

Jean-Eric Vergne's race engineer on team radio: "There are rivers running across the track at [turns] eight to 10."

Encouragingly, Michael Schumacher is pulling on his helmet, as it his Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg which means it shouldn't be too long till we see some action from those boys at least. As I say that, Jean-Eric Vergne pulls out of his garage and heads out on track on the full wet tyre.

Sebastian Vettel is chatting to his engineers in the Red Bull garage, but Jenson Button, this morning's pacesetter, prefers the cosy confines of the McLaren hospitality unit where he's relaxing with a hot beverage. It looks like coffee, but I can't be sure.

We have movement, people. Bruno Senna has fired up his Williams, which has been repaired after the team's reserve driver Valtteri Bottas smashed it earlier, and headed out to explore the river conditions. He doesn't much fancy it, though and dives straight back in...

Grim scenes at Hockenheim at the moment. Team personnel are scurrying between the pit wall and the garages, desperately trying not to get wet. Nico Rosberg looks relaxed, leaning against a wall at the back of the garage chatting to his engineer. With two minutes to go until the session starts, it doesn't look like he has any intention of going out in these conditions.

On a brighter note, Stef up in multimedia has cut together the best bits of first practice - including Bottas's crash at Turn 13 - which you can find on the Formula 1 pages. Enjoy.

Second practice will get going at 13:00 BST and last for 90 minutes, with BBC Radio 5 live audio commentary on this very website at 12:55, too.

While Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button and the rest of the on-site McLaren team are hard at work at the track, trying to find that sweet spot in their set-up, there's no let up back at base in Woking either...

Hello, I'm back, refreshed and raring to go. First practice was a bit of a damp squib. Here's hoping second practice will be a fair bit drier...

I'm off for a quick pit stop before returning at 12:30 BST to build up to second practice. In the meantime, here's Andrew Benson's report and Jaime Alguersuari's latest BBC Sport column to keep you ticking over. Catch ya in a bit.

It's typical that 10 minutes after the session ends, patches of blue sky start to break through over Hockenheim. Fingers crossed it stays like this for FP2, which starts at 13:00 BST, so the teams can get more data on their new updates and we can get a better idea of form for Sunday's 67-lap race.

And here's the rest of the standings...

13) Bottas 14) Ricciardo 15) Raikkonen 16) Bianchi 17) Vergne 18) Petrov 19) Kovalainen 20) Webber 21) Pic 22) Glock 23) De la Rosa 24) Clos

1) Button 2) Hamilton 3) Alonso 4) Schumacher 5) Perez 6) Hulkenberg 7) Rosberg 8) Massa 9) Maldonado 10) Grosjean 11) Kobayashi 12) Vettel

First to sixth separated by just one second, with 1.7 seconds splitting the top 12.

So it's a McLaren 1-2 with Jenson Button finishing 0.5 seconds clear of team-mate Lewis Hamilton. Championship leader Fernando Alonso was third fastest, three tenths slower ahead of Michael Schumacher in the Mercedes. Here's the full rundown.

Williams's Valtteri Bottas team radio: Race engineer: "Are you OK?" Bottas: "OK, sorry. I don't know what happened."

The Finn takes the steering wheel out and climbs out of the car to survey the damage. The camera pans to Bruno Senna, whose car Bottas was using for this session, but the Brazilian appears unmoved. I'm not so sure he's that calm inside, though...

A lot of oversteer for Lewis Hamilton in the final corner. The Briton is struggling on the exit of low and medium speed corners.

The track temperature has creeped up to 21C and we're hearing no more rain is expected for the remaining five minutes of the session. Sergio Perez improves to go fourth fastest, eight tenths off the pace as Kimi Raikkonen, who has yet to set a timed lap, heads out on track.

The track is coming back to the drivers now, with Fernando Alonso going second fastest overall, ahead of Michael Schumacher but seven tenths shy of pacesetter Jenson Button.

Mark Webber understeers into Turn 12 which sees the Red Bull drift out onto the kerbs and edge onto the gravel. The Australian keeps his foot on the gas and turns lawnmower, cutting up some grass as he eases back onto the track.

The Toro Rossos of Daniel Ricciardo and Jean-Eric Vergne have headed out on track on slick tyres while Kamui Kobayashi perseveres with the intermediate tyres, lapping around 7.7 seconds off the pace.

All quiet out on track as the teams wait for the track to dry out. The fans who have made the trip to Hockenheim look in high spirits, many dressed in those disposable bin bag-style raincoats or huddling underneath an umbrella.

Kamui Kobayashi bolts on a set of intermediate tyres and heads out on track in his Sauber but soon finds that it's not wet enough for that rubber and dives back into the pits.

Kimi Raikkonen is now the only man yet to have set a time as Michael Schumacher goes fifth quickest with a 1:18.247, 1.6 seconds off the pace.

Ferrari have sent both Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa back out to the play as the weather improves. The Spaniard goes second quickest, 1.2 seconds slower than Jenson Button's leading time. Lewis Hamilton improves, too, to go third overall, a tenth slower than Alonso, his former team-mate.

Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher turns weatherman over the team radio: "There's another shower coming in a couple of minutes."

Lewis Hamilton, who won the German Grand Prix in 2011 at the Nurburgring, is ninth fastest. Mark Webber 13th while championship leader Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher have yet to set a time.

With 45 minutes to go, Jenson Button is still fastest from Romain Grosjean, Sergio Perez, Valtteri Bottas, Felipe Massa, Jean-Eric Vergne, Nico Rosberg and Heikki Kovalainen.

We've just seen a replay of Pastor Maldonado going off track at Turn 12, trundling through the gravel before deciding he prefers the race track. The Williams driver heads back to the pits to see if he's done any damage to the underside of the car.

The rain has returned, which means another trip back to the pits for most. Felipe Massa has stayed out, though, as it looks like he's doing a "constant speed" test.

Lewis Hamilton has headed out on track, with Felipe Massa not too far behind in his Ferrari. It looks like it's stopped raining, but the track remains damp so it'll take a while for the times to come back down to the pace set by Jenson Button earlier on.

While we've got a slight lull in proceedings, here's a rundown of the times so far. Jenson Button is quickest of all with a 1:16.595, 1.7 seconds clear of Romain Grosjean. Sergio Perez is a further eight tenths slower, with Valtteri Bottas a solid fourth in the Williams.

We've got three reserve drivers competing in this session with Valtteri Bottas stepping in for Bruno Senna at Williams, Jules Bianchi has taken over Paul di Resta's Force India and over at HRT, Dani Clos has borrowed Narain Karthikeyan's machine.

Jenson Button is the first man to set a competitive lap time when he clocks a 1:17.240 in his McLaren around the 4.574km track. That's 1.2 seconds quicker than Romain Grosjean in the Lotus and 2.6 clear of Sauber's Sergio Perez.

Kamui Kobayashi, who has what lokos like gaffer tape flapping away on the back of his Sauber, is the first man to set a timed lap, clocking 1:55.569.

Kimi Raikkonen outbrakes himself and runs off track, moments before Kamui Kobayashi loses the back end of his Sauber. We might see a bit more of that early on as the track hasn't been used and is therefore very dirty and will take time to rubber in.

There's fluorescent yellow flo-viz paint all over the place as the teams look to assess their new aerodynamic updates. Ferrari have daubed it all over Fernando Alonso's front wing.

Plenty of action right from the off with Jean-Eric Vergne, Daniel Ricciardo, Heikki Kovalainen, Timo Glock, Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez blasting out of the blocks early doors.

Double world champion Mika Hakkinen, who won his titles with McLaren in 1998 and 1999, has made the trip over to Germany and is chatting to some Williams mechanics outside Bruno Senna's garage.

While I had a holiday in Paris in the gap between races, Lewis Hamilton headed to Moscow to test drive his McLaren on the streets of the Russian capital alongside Marussia's Charles Pic and Ferrari test driver Giancarlo Fisichella. Sebastian Vettel and Michael Schumacher, meanwhile, laced up their football boots and took to the pitch for a "Kick for Kids" charity match in Frankfurt while Nico Hulkenberg swapped his Force India for a ticket office at Hockenheim, helping to boost sales for this weekend's race.

Here's the schedule for today. We've got a 90-minute practice session coming up at 09:00 BST and another at 13:00. We'll also have live commentary on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra from 08:55.

Sebastian Vettel's not had the best of seasons, with just one victory in nine races. Not the kind of statistics the German is used to following a record breaking season which saw him take 15 wins and 11 pole positions on his way to a second successive title in 2011. There's been none of that dominance this year with seven different winners in nine races with only Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber triumphing twice. As a result, you'll be unsurprised to learn they occupy the top two spots in the drivers' standings.

Welcome one and all to the 2012 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. It's quite remarkable that not one of Vettel's 22 wins have come on home soil with results of eighth, second, third and fourth not quite cutting the mustard since his debut in 2008. Even more staggering is the fact the German has not one once in July in 10 attempts, but has triumphed in every other F1 calendar month (March-November).

Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel has never won his home grand prix in four attempts. More to the point, he's never won a race in July. Can the German - one of five on the grid - consign that fact to the history books? Buckle up as we prepare to find out...