Lewis Hamilton paid the price for his smash in first practice as he sat out almost the entire second session ahead of Sunday's German Grand Prix.

But with only 12 minutes of track time at Hockenheim and in running for just 10 laps - Toro Rosso's Jaime Alguersuari completed 48 as a contrast - Hamilton still produced a credible performance.

The championship leader managed to post the seventh quickest time, finishing 0.739 seconds behind Fernando Alonso as Ferrari and Red Bull Racing locked out the top four places.

But it is the 78 minutes of valuable running that will hurt him and the team the most as his mechanics spent four hours repairing a car that rammed into a tyre wall during the opening 90-minute session.

Heavy rain had fallen for four hours in the morning, leaving pools of standing water on a track that caught out many drivers, the most significant of which was Hamilton.

After finally setting his first timed lap almost 65 minutes in, his programme for the morning was brought to a halt soon after.

Hamilton did nothing more than put a wheel on a damp part of the circuit that at that time was beginning to show a drier line in places.

That immediately led to his McLaren getting out of shape, sending Hamilton sliding across the wet grass, and with understandably no traction he ploughed nose first into a barrier.

The impact, although not severe, was enough to send him spinning around, resulting in a second collision with the tyres that damaged his left-rear wheel.

McLaren then performed wonders to get him back out on track with a few minutes to spare in what was a predominantly dry session other than a few spots of rain now and again.

On only his second timed lap Hamilton's pace was enough to put him within 0.069secs of team-mate Jenson Button, who was 14th at the time.

Hamilton eventually finished with a lap of one minute 17.004secs, seven tenths of a second faster than Button who finished down in 15th and who completed 36 laps.

Hamilton's time will at least be encouraging to McLaren who were again testing the performance-enhancing exhaust blown diffuser that was ditched after Friday practice at the British Grand Prix two weeks ago.

It was Alonso, though, who held sway with a lap of 1:16.265, just 0.029secs ahead of home hero Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull, and who had an engine change at the start of the second session.

Team-mates in Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Red Bull's Mark Webber were third and fourth fastest followed by the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg, who required a new front wing at one stage, and Michael Schumacher.

Behind Hamilton came Renault's Robert Kubica and the Williams duo of Rubens Barrichello and Nico Hulkenberg in ninth and 10th.

The drier conditions led to a 'normal' timesheet for the second session as the new teams in Lotus, Virgin and Hispania Racing occupied the final six places.

Hispania's Bruno Senna and Sakon Yamamoto filled the bottom two spots, the latter 6.801secs adrift of Alonso.

Times
01. Alonso Ferrari 1:16.265 35 laps
02. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:16.294 + 0.029 26 laps
03. Massa Ferrari 1:16.438 + 0.173 37 laps
04. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:16.585 + 0.320 40 laps
05. Rosberg Mercedes 1:16.827 + 0.562 32 laps
06. Schumacher Mercedes 1:16.971 + 0.706 20 laps
07. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:17.004 + 0.739 10 laps
08. Kubica Renault 1:17.009 + 0.744 37 laps
09. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:17.056 + 0.791 37 laps
10. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:17.204 + 0.939 44 laps
11. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:17.336 + 1.071 44 laps
12. Petrov Renault 1:17.547 + 1.282 35 laps
13. de la Rosa Sauber-Ferrari 1:17.573 + 1.308 39 laps
14. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:17.701 + 1.436 38 laps
15. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:17.739 + 1.474 36 laps
16. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:17.871 + 1.606 33 laps
17. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:18.147 + 1.882 45 laps
18. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:19.327 + 3.062 48 laps
19. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:19.553 + 3.288 30 laps
20. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:20.008 + 3.743 34 laps
21. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:20.106 + 3.841 31 laps
22. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:20.377 + 4.112 37 laps
23. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:21.988 + 5.723 37 laps
24. Yamamoto HRT-Cosworth 1:23.066 + 6.801 37 laps