Coulthard in a spin in Germany

David Coulthard hopes to get his weekend back on track soon after suffering a “bizarre” practice session for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim today.

The Scot spun twice in the same place and had moments on two other occasions as he set the 11th fastest time in second practice.

That erratic display was unlike the usually consistent Coulthard, whose bad day was made worse by McLaren team-mate Kimi Raikkonen’s strong showing.

Raikkonen, who finished second at Silverstone two weeks ago as Coulthard languished in seventh, was beaten only by world champion Michael Schumacher to again demonstrate the speed of McLaren’s new car.

Coulthard never looked capable of matching the Finn and blamed handling problems with his car.

He said: “There is some evidence of some catching on the front suspension so they are going to check the clearances to see if that is a problem.

“But I haven’t had a spin in a long time so it is a bit strange.

“The first one was very strange, very high speed, just hit the brakes and went – thankfully there was no barrier and no gravel there otherwise it could have got messy.

“It is a bit bizarre. Obviously Kimi is driving a different car. All I can do is try to react to how the car feels.

“If it is chucking me off the circuit then there has to be reason for that. I am not consciously out there trying to not get round the lap – I just want to finish the lap, get a lap time and take it from there.

“But definitely it is something strange. If we find something and fix it, it is retrievable but if they don’t we are in for a difficult weekend. I think certainly from Kimi’s run we look quite competitive.”

Coulthard is trying to remain optimistic though, and expects to fix the problem in practice tomorrow prior to qualifying.

“Whilst the balance of the car is not where I want it to be, my primary goal today was to make the right tyre choice,” he added.

“Tomorrow I will concentrate on the car which I’m sure we will improve throughout the day.”

Raikkonen was more upbeat than Coulthard after another good display.

In setting the second fastest time, Raikkonen suggested he is capable of repeating his Silverstone performance and challenging Michael Schumacher for victory.

He said: “We completed our planned programme and are pretty happy with how things went.

“The car is okay and I think we are confident with our tyre choice. We now have to wait until tomorrow’s qualifying and Sunday’s race, but so far, so good and based on today I think we should be in with a good chance for a competitive result.”