Massa finishes Hockenheim test on top

Massa took over the testing duties from Kimi Raikkonen to finish Ferrari's testing programme as the team bid to move on from their British Grand Prix disappointment.

And the Brazilian was the only driver to get under the one minute 15 seconds barriers as he set a best time of 1:14.989 seconds.

"It was a good day's work," said Massa. "We did a lot of kilometres and I have to say the car felt well balanced. This can only mean that we should also be competitive at this track, which is also the case for our main rivals."

Button evaluated new aerodynamic updates on his Honda Racing RA108 to set the second fastest time, just 0.092 seconds behind Massa.

Heikki Kovalainen was third quickest for McLaren, ahead of Mark Webber in the Red Bull Racing car and Scuderia Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel.

Giancarlo Fisichella brought a red flag out with a crash in his Force India at the Sachskurve in the afternoon, while Kazuki Nakajima also forced a stoppage in the morning when he stopped on track with a mechanical problem.

"It was a bit frustrating we could not do more running," said Fisichella. "In the morning we had the technical problem and had to stop for some time, then in the afternoon I had an accident.

"The rear of the car went away and I just lost control through the stadium complex. The car went across the road and there's not much run off area there so I went into the wall. I'm fine, but the car was quite badly damaged.

"The guys did a good job to get it out again for the last 30 minutes. Overall we are making some small improvements and moving forward. We will have to see how they work next weekend."

The other red flag of the day was caused by Fernando Alonso, whose Renault stopped on track at 16:35.

As well as trying out their car developments and set-ups, the drivers were also able to practice starts during a special lunchtime extension.

Today's times:

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time      Laps
 1.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:14.989  109
 2.  Button        Honda               (B)  1:15.081  121
 3.  Kovalainen    McLaren-Mercedes    (B)  1:15.289  123
 4.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault    (B)  1:15.378  118
 5.  Vettel        Toro Rosso-Ferrari  (B)  1:15.556  115
 6.  Alonso        Renault             (B)  1:15.593  119
 7.  Nakajima      Williams-Toyota     (B)  1:15.759  118
 8.  Kubica        BMW-Sauber          (B)  1:15.869  107
 9.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:16.065  129
10.  Fisichella    Force India-Ferrari (B)  1:16.113   74

All Timing Unofficial