It was local hero and newly crowned Formula 3 champion, Alvaro Parente who led the time sheet after the first test of the day. Two additional sessions were added to the race programme for Estoril and the Portuguese driver set a time of 1.54.918 in the first one that kicked off at 09.30. At the end of the second of the two 40 minute sessions, it was fellow Portuguese speaker Nelson Piquet Jr representing A1 Team Brazil who was fastest with a time of 1.51.916.

A1 Team Portugal’s Alvaro Parente said of his local track: ‘In 2002 I had my first and only race at Estoril, I know a lot of British tracks better than this one. I have done some testing here, I like the track and we seem to have improved on the car. There have been some changes that have been made which have improved the car a lot and I think that we can be competitive here.’

It was business as usual for A1 Team France who won both races in Germany but this time it was Alexandre Premat behind the wheel setting the fastest time of the day on a much drier but still damp track during the first official practice session. His best time of 1.33.024 was nearly seventh tenths of a second quicker than second placed A1 Team Germany who for the first time this season, have Adrian Sutil as their race driver.

Even though practice session two got away 25 minutes late, the conditions ensured that all the times were considerably slower. A1 Team France kept their momentum recording the fastest time in the second session as well at 1.52.037.

Commenting on the day’s action, A1 Team France’s Alexandre Premat said: ‘Conditions were very difficult during the shakedown and practice sessions. For session one the track was bit wet and dry, which made it difficult sometimes, but I did a good time with the new tyres. In the second session we did a lot of work on the wet set-up, the car has not been good in the wet, the team did a really good job and now it is now much better. I am confident for qualifying tomorrow, although a lot of work still needs to be done.’

Official Practice Session 1 (13.00 - 14.00)

A1 Team Driver Time No. Laps
1 France Alexandre Premat 1.33.024 14
2 Germany Adrian Sutil 1.33.700 17
3 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 1.33.734 19
4 Australia Will Davison 1.34.065 16
5 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 1.34.085 16
6 Portugal Alvaro Parente 1.34.699 16
7 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 1.35.283 17
8 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 1.35.302 15
9 Switzerland Neel Jani 1.35.590 15

10 Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy 1.35.915 15
11 Ireland Ralph Firman 1.35.992 10
12 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 1.36.055 16
13 Russia Alexander Turumin 1.36.367 20
14 Canada Sean McIntosh 1.36.374 12
15 Austria Mathias Lauda 1.36.482 21
16 South Africa Tomas Scheckter 1.36.777 17
17 USA Scott Speed 1.37.534 11
18 Pakistan Adam Khan 1.38.978 7
19 New Zealand Matt Halliday 1.39.361 17
20 Lebanon Basil Shaaban 1.41.157 16
21 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 1.44.914 10
22 India Armaan Ebrahim 1.45.263 23
23 China Tengji Jiang 1.45.388 8
24 Mexico Salvador Duran 1.45.400 12

Official Practice session 2 (16.25 - 17.25)

A1 Team Driver Time No. Laps
1 France Alexandre Premat 1.52.037 5
2 Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr 1.53.777 5
3 Portugal Alvaro Parente 1.53.895 11
4 Switzerland Neel Jani 1.53.930 5
5 USA Scott Speed 1.54.316 10
6 Czech Republic Tomas Enge 1.54.973 7
7 Ireland Ralph Firman 1.54.975 4
8 South Africa Tomas Scheckter 1.55.091 6
9 Germany Adrian Sutil 1.55.483 5
10 Indonesia Ananda Mikola 1.55.610 2
11 Malaysia Fairuz Fauzy 1.56.084 2
12 Canada Sean McIntosh 1.56.264 7
13 Netherlands Jos Verstappen 1.56.424 10
14 Italy Enrico Toccacelo 1.56.518 8
15 Great Britain Robbie Kerr 1.57.805 5
16 Austria Mathias Lauda 1.58.060 9
17 New Zealand Matt Halliday 1.58.552 5
18 Mexico Salvador Duran 1.58.808 2
19 Pakistan Adam Khan 2.00.332 6
20 India Armaan Ebrahim 2.00.695 8
21 Russia Alexander Turumin 2.01.074 5
22 China Tengyi Jiang 2.02.105 10
23 Lebanon Basil Shaaban 2.02.622 3

A1 Team Australia chose not to participate in the second official practice session due to their concerns over the track conditions.