Lewis Hamilton refused to beat himself up too much after a practice smash that has put the championship leader on the back foot ahead of Sunday's German Grand Prix.
Following heavy rain in the morning that left puddles of standing water on the Hockenheim track, first practice caught out a number of drivers, the most high profile of whom was Hamilton.
The 25-year-old did not set his first timed lap until 65 minutes into a 90-minute session that did not last too much longer after that.
In fairness, Hamilton did nothing wrong as he simply hit the rev limiter as he emerged out of a slow corner, sending his wheels into a spin on a damp part of a track that was drying at that stage.
That sent him sliding across the wet grass, and with 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 tyre wall that damaged his left-rear wheel.
It was not until just over four hours later, with 78 minutes of the second session already expired, that Hamilton finally emerged back on track, managing to complete only 10 laps.
In his short outing, however, he managed the seventh quickest time with a lap of one minute 17.004secs, finishing seven tenths of a second behind Ferrari's Fernando Alonso.
'It's been quite an interesting day for me,' said Hamilton, at least managing a smile in the circumstances.
'Obviously I damaged the car quite heavily and I was a little bit upset with myself. That was because I know how hard the guys have worked during the week, only for us to then get to the track and for me to total the car after a few laps.
'What was a relief was when I came back and they explained to me how it occurred. When I was on the grass I was just a passenger and I ended up taking all four corners off (the car).
'So it was a huge amount of work for the guys, and they are just phenomenal, they really are. They did such an awesome job.
'I managed to get back out, I had only 10 laps, but was only seven tenths off, so it was good to get out and overcome the difficulty I had in the morning.
'At least I've something to work on now. I've a good feeling of where the car is, and hopefully we can make some good set-up changes overnight.'
Team-mate Jenson Button was down in 15th, but primarily as he acted as guinea pig in the afternoon and covered most of the testing that should have been shared with Hamilton.
Although the reigning champion was seven tenths of a second adrift of Hamilton, the 30-year-old concentrated on long runs with a heavy fuel load.
It also meant Button was charged with the task of running the rule over the team's performance-enhancing exhaust blown diffuser that was ditched after Friday practice for the British Grand Prix a fortnight ago.
Team principal Martin Whitmarsh has confirmed both drivers will run with the diffuser this weekend, and despite the damage sustained to Hamilton's car, they have enough spare parts as cover.
Whitmarsh said: 'Today's two sessions presented difficult and changeable conditions in which to conduct the necessary tests.
'But we gathered a lot of useful data that will hopefully give us good direction throughout the rest of the weekend. So we will be running the diffuser. All the data was what we expected it to be so we should have the confidence it will do everything we expect it to, or most of what we expect it to.'
Button, who was unhappy with what he experienced with his car during Friday practice at Silverstone, was far more content on this occasion.
'As Lewis had a problem this morning I had a busy afternoon running through our long-run programme,' said Button.
'The new floor appears to be working well. We still need to look at the data to see how much of an improvement it's giving us, but there's no negative to it, which is great.'
Ferrari appear strong with Alonso quickest with a lap of 1:16.265, just 0.029secs ahead of home hero Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull.
Their team-mates Felipe Massa and Mark Webber were third and fourth, with the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher fifth and sixth.
