Racing Engineering's Dani Clos has topped the times in today's GP2 Series practice session at Hockenheim.
On a track still drying out from heavy rains earlier in the morning, the Spaniard was one of several drivers to find improvements in the final minute of the session, finishing up with a 1m36.351s effort that left him 0.119sec clear of ART's Jules Bianchi.
Clos's teammate Christian Vietoris made it up to third at the final moment to put him ahead of Sam Bird, while series returnee Romain Grosjean marked the start of his cameo appearance with DAMS by going fifth quickest. The former Renault F1 driver, who is standing in for Jerome d'Ambrosio this weekend, was second for much of the session before losing places in the late scramble, although he did post a purple first sector on his final lap. Points leader Pastor Maldonado wound up just behind Grosjean in sixth.
The tricky conditions caught several drivers out, with a sheet of standing water at the hairpin proving a particular trouble spot. Most of the off-track excursions were harmless, although Ocean's Fabio Leimer, Trident's Adrian Zaugg, Coloni's Vladimir Arabadzhiev and DPR's Michael Herck all dropped out of the session early by spinning and being unable to restart.
Arden, meanwhile, survived a close shave when its two drivers Rodolfo Gonzalez and Charles Pic hit each other at the hairpin, but both cars were able to continue and finished 14th and 17th quickest respectively.