Jenson Button set the fastest time in a rainy first practice for the German Grand Prix on Friday.
Button set his time of 1 minute 16.595 seconds early in the session, before rain made the Hockenheim track slippery and stopped any of the teams setting competitive times for almost an hour.
As the track dried, Lewis Hamilton posted 1 minute 17.093 seconds, fast enough to take second place and raise hopes of a resurgence for McLaren after the British team fell off the pace in recent races.
“Early days, but a positive start,” the team said on Twitter.
Championship leader Fernando Alonso was third for Ferrari, almost three tenths of a second slower than Hamilton, while Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber were 12th and 20th respectively.
Despite the drying track, Williams test driver Valtteri Bottas slid into the barriers, damaging the rear end of the car he had borrowed from Bruno Senna for the session.
Russian driver Vitaly Petrov completed 24 laps, posting a fastest time of 1 minute 19.674 seconds, which was enough to finish 18th, one place and 0.289 seconds ahead of teammate Heikki Kovalainen.
The Russian-owned Marussia team saw Charles Pic take 21st place and Timo Glock 22nd, although the German’s running was cut short by an electrical problem, the team said on Twitter.
