Jordan engine supplier Honda has insisted that it will continue to supply both the Irish squad and rivals BAR next year, dispelling suggestions that the Japanese company would restrict its engines to just one team in 2002.

The poor results of BAR and Jordan this year - Jacques Villeneuve's third place in Spain is the only podium finish from either team - led to heavy speculation that Honda had already decided to abandon its two-pronged assault on the championship and that because of the car manufacturer's partnership with BAR on chassis development, Jordan would be the team dropped.

Yesterday, however, Honda's technical director Kazutoshi Nishizawa said that the company would continue to provide full works support to both teams and that a deviation from that programme had never been an option.

"We don't understand why there is all this speculation and rumour surrounding Honda. We will supply both teams next year. In actual fact, we presented our 2002 engine to both teams in Malaysia. We never planned to drop either team."

This statement, coupled with the news on Thursday that Jordan's lead driver, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, is keen to pledge his future to the Irish squad following rumours of a possible move to Toyota, leaves Jordan looking better-placed to offer a significant challenge in the future than it has done in recent weeks.

The team has managed just three finishes from the eight most recent starts and desperately needs to start scoring points if it to come anywhere close to attaining Honda's publicly-stated goal of finishing third in the constructors' championship this year.

Their latest bid got off to a mixed start yesterday with Jarno Trulli finishing the day's free-practice sessions an encouraging seventh, while Frentzen ended up a lowly 19th after spinning out early in the second session and stalling in the gravel traps.

The German was taking to the cockpit for the first time since the free-practice smash in Montreal that ruled him out of the Canadian GP, having only been given the final all clear to compete here after hospital tests late on Thursday.

"I feel fit and well and it's good to be back in the car," he said. "The first session was productive, but I wasn't able to finish our planned set-up schedule as I braked too late coming into the last corner, causing me to spin into the gravel. As a result I lost most of the second session, which is a shame."

Further up the timesheet, it was home engine supplier Mercedes making all the running with McLaren's Mika Hakkinen taking the day's fastest time ahead of team-mate David Coulthard. The pair were a full second clear of Ferrari's third-placed Michael Schumacher, who visibly struggled with the balance of his F1-2001, the German sliding off several times and shaking his head in confusion as he climbed from the cockpit at the end of the second session.

Schumacher, though, was typically sanguine about the gap to the McLarens, saying that it was similar to Canada, where a one-second gap on Friday was translated into the world champion's sixth pole of the season.

"I'm not worried," he said, "We were in front on Saturday in Canada and it could be similar here. Everything has gone to plan today, so I expect we can be up at the front tomorrow."

The plan could be undermined by the Nurburgring's ever-changing moods, however. While no rain has been forecast for qualifying or race day, temperatures on day one scarcely lived up to the mid-summer date which was expected to alleviate the risk of rain.

With sharp winds also whipping across the mountain track, the job of getting tyres working, finding the right compromise between mechanical and aerodynamic grip on such a technical circuit and coping with the understeer that results from the track's complex selection of slow- to medium-paced corners proved a tall order yesterday.

McLaren will be all too aware of the capricious nature of the circuit, having suffered in fickle weather conditions in Austria last month, when on a similar style of circuit both Coulthard and Hakkinen slumped in the one-hour shootout as the winds changed and the temperature dropped.

Williams, too, will be eyeing the qualifying barometer with furrowed brows. The BMW-powered squad's chances of scoring back-to-back wins after Ralf Schumacher's Canadian victory will take a severe knock if the temperatures remains as they are - well below the high heat the team's Michelin tyres seem to need.

Yesterday neither Schumacher nor team-mate Juan Pablo Montoya seemed unduly hampered by the cold as they finished third and sixth respectively, with Schumacher admitting that his FW23 was performing much better than expected.

Like Austria though, the track here will improve as more and more goes down and if, as forecast, the sun does come out to play tomorrow, the sibling rivalry begun in Canada could be reignited right here in the Schumachers' back garden.