Alonso hits back

Fernando Alonso hit back at Michael Schumacher in practice for the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring today.

Schumacher, fresh from his Imola win two weeks ago, was the fastest race driver in first practice but he had to play second fiddle to the world champion this afternoon.

Renault driver Alonso narrowly pipped Schumacher to top spot in the battle of the race drivers, while Williams tester Alex Wurz claimed overall honours.

With no pressure to conserve their engines, Formula One’s test drivers are traditionally up front on Friday and Wurz continued that trend, although his lap of one minute 32.675 seconds was slower than the morning best.

Alonso was second, nearly a second behind, while Schumacher followed in third, suggesting Ferrari’s return to form on home ground at Imola can sustain outside Italy.

Red Bull test driver Robert Doornbos spun on his way to fourth, finishing just ahead of Honda counterpart Anthony Davidson.

Ralf Schumacher was sixth for Toyota as he prepares for his 150th grand prix, while Honda’s Jenson Button took sixth. Scotsman David Coulthard was 19th for Red Bull.

Franck Montagny continued to acquit himself well on his Super Aguri debut, finishing practice within half a second of team leader Takuma Sato.

The Frenchman got a late call to step in for his grand prix debut after world governing body, the FIA, asked for Yuji Ide to be dropped following a series of accidents.

Even though he ran through the gravel this morning, Montagny still performed markedly better than is predecessor as he prepares to be the first French grand prix driver since 2004.

Wurz was fastest in this morning’s first practice, leaving Davidson and Kubica in second and third respectively.

The Austrian was the man to beat with his lap of 1min 32.079secs while Schumacher was the fastest race driver by some distance.