The Hockenheimring is an almost completely new circuit this year in terms of its layout, and Minardi drivers Mark Webber and Alex Yoong spent the first two Friday practice sessions for this Sunday's German Grand Prix getting to grips with the demands of the track.

Both men enjoyed a productive opening session, getting through a useful amount of the team's technical programme for the day. Yoong was not able to continue the progress in the second session, though, after an otherwise harmless spin caused his car to become lodged on the kerb at Turn 2.

Webber also experienced some bad luck in the afternoon when his car developed a gearbox problem that brought the session to a premature end. Both Webber and Yoong expect to make further progress fine-tuning the handling of their cars tomorrow.

"It wasn't really an enjoyable session for us today," lamented Webber, who finished twenty-first. "We tried to collect as much information as we could for Sunday, and actually had quite a lot of fuel in the car. We had a small gearbox problem towards the end of the second session, and therefore weren't able to carry out our normal tyre comparison.

"Tomorrow's a new day, though, and we'll check everything overnight and see where we can improve a little bit. As it is a new track layout here at Hockenheim this year, I'm sure there is scope to make some useful progress."

Yoong was twenty-second and frustrated at missing so much of session two. "It has been a day of mixed fortunes. I had a good opening session this morning but, in common with a number of other drivers, had a harmless spin at turn two this afternoon. Unluckily, the car became 'beached' on the curb and, as a result, I lost most of the second session," he said.

"My first impression of the new layout here at Hockenheim is that the tarmac seems to be very different from any other circuit we have encountered so far. There was a surprising amount of grip available in the first session, bearing in mind the track was dirty and there was very little rubber down on the surface. This afternoon, when you would have expected the grip level to have improved, the times didn't seem to get any quicker. Overall, though, today was a bit frustrating because of missing much of the second session, but on the positive side, I think our level of competitiveness this weekend will be good."

Team Principal Paul Stoddart added: "The day started well for both drivers, as they completed the planned number of laps in the first session and set some respectable times in the process. Unfortunately for Alex, his first run of the second session ended when his car became stuck on the curbing. Mark enjoyed a slightly better time, but wasn't able to complete his last run due to a technical problem. We look forward to a better day tomorrow."