Philippe Phitt - Shumi Shines - Kawa Krash...

The timed sessions at Oschersleben have begun, with blue skies, bright sunshine and temperatures in the low thirties. Fastest in the first free practice session this morning was SERT Suzuki, with a time of 1:28.638. Kawasaki France were two tenths of a second behind them on 1:28.838.

SERT's time dropped to 1:28.480 in the second free practice session but Kawasaki France did not improve, crashing in the final fifteen minutes. Yamaha Austria were the only other team in the 1:28s, with a time of 1:28.857.

Kawasaki France are already repairing crash damage

Yoshimura Deutschland (1:29.408) were fourth quickest across the two sessions, with Yamaha Phase One (1:29.509) fifth, Yamaha Motor Deutchland (1:29.544) sixth, Bolliger Kawasaki (1:29.615) seventh, Holzauer Racing Honda (1:30.510) eighth, AM Moto Suzuki (1:30.663) ninth and Maco Moto Yamaha (1:30.751) tenth.

Vincent Philippe is here and fit to ride; this afternoon's individual qualifying sessions will show us just how fit he is.

Micheal Schumacher, trying to look like one of the boys while a dozen people take his photo.

Michael Schumacher *is* competing at Oschersleben, riding the No.77 Holzhauer Racing Honda. Again, this afternoon's individual times will give us a measure of his performance. There's no difficulty finding his team's pit box; just look for the one with the swarm of marshals, officials, photographers and general hangers buzzing round outside it.

Yamaha Phase One's new signing Graeme Gowland has already made an impression with the team, recording some impressive times in free practice.

Buell 1125R also making it's World Championship debut

The quickest BMW HP2 was the No.17 bike on 1:32.629, the fastest KTM RC8 was the No.25 KTM Dealer Team entry on 1:33.430, while the Buell recorded a best time of 1:36.149.

This morning's weather. Lovely. Rain tomorrow, apparently...

Got some World Endurance news? send it to info@redleg.co.uk