by Our Sports Desk

Susie Wolff now faces “the million dollar question” as to where her Formula One career goes from here.

As part of her planned programme as Williams’ development driver, the 31-year-old Scot completed the first practice session for the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim yesterday.

For one dreadful moment though, it appeared as if the outing would again be short-lived, as was the case in FP1 ahead of the British Grand Prix a fortnight ago.

On that day Wolff made history as she became the first woman for 22 years to take part in a race weekend and only the sixth overall.

Given a planned second bite of the cherry in Germany, with Valtteri Bottas again making way, on her first out-lap and just over a minute into the session, Wolff was seen touring.

Mercifully, unlike at Silverstone where she was forced to pull off track, she was able to coast back to the garage where the team rectified a minor electrical problem.

Wolff went on to complete 22 laps, finishing 15th on the timesheet, just a quarter-of-a-second behind teammate Felipe Massa.

There were, though, two pitlane speeding fines in a matter of three minutes that cost her €2,000 (£1,580), but they were a blip on an otherwise fine performance.

“I did more than one lap so that was fantastic,” said Wolff with a smile.

“I had a little bit of a worry at the beginning to get back to the pits because of an electrical problem but as soon as they said ‘okay, we can fix it, I thought ‘oh, thank goodness’.

“After that it was a case of going for it and it all felt fantastic.

“The only small downside is I picked up two pitlane speeding fines so quite an expensive morning!

“But apart from that I’m happy with how the morning went, as were the team who did such a good job in getting me ready for today.

“Today was an important step forward. 

“If me being out there today was inspirational to just more than a couple of women or girls watching then I think it is a step in the right direction.

“But I’ve always said I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t think it was possible, so for me it was just the next natural step on my Formula One journey.”

As to the exact nature of that next step, Wolff added: “That’s the million dollar question — what comes next?

“It’s difficult because it was only ever planned for me to do two practice sessions this season, and that’s the second one done now.

“Of course it’s carrying on my work for the team. I’m always someone who likes to keep improving, keep moving forwards.

“That’s my aim, and that’s going to be the big fight. It’s tough, and that’s the big trouble in Formula One, to get in the car and get more time in the car.”