Free practice 3: Schuey shows colours

The German lowered the benchmark to an awesome 1m39.937s around the 4.241-mile Hockenheim motordrome, with team mate Rubens Barrichello slotting in to second some 0.499s behind. But still expect significantly quicker times in the afternoon qualifying session.

Schumacher has won his home race only once before, but victory here this weekend would equal Alain Prost's record of 51 GP wins and make the fight for the world championship an academic exercise. The reigning world champ is 37 points ahead of McLaren's David Coulthard, with just six races and 60 points still at stake.

If Coulthard is to maintain his challenge beyond this weekend, McLaren needs to find a little extra in the final 45-minute session before this afternoon's single hour of qualifying. The team concentrated on full tanks running on Friday, but still only finished fifth and sixth fastest in Saturday's first session as the emphasis switched.

Coulthard finished ahead of his team mate Mika Hakkinen, but 0.760s off Schumacher's time. The Finn's session was punctuated by an understeer excursion off the circuit entering the stadium section and the subsequent delay as the car was cleared of gravel.

Between the pair of Ferraris and the pair of McLarens - a pair of Williams-BMWs. Ralf Schumacher was third, 0.520s off his older brother, with Juan Pablo Montoya looking as flamboyant as ever in fourth, 0.204s off his team mate's time.

Nick Heidfeld's Sauber and Jacques Villeneuve's BAR-Honda took the seventh and eighth slots, with Friday fast man Eddie Irvine putting his Jaguar ninth after a strong early showing in the session. Irvine had promised that Friday's pace would not be sustained as qualifying loomed and with team mate Pedro de la Rosa 11th, that seems to be the case. Nevertheless, it's still a significant step forward in competitiveness for the team.

Kimi Raikkonen's Sauber completed a top 10 dominated numerically by Bridgestone-shod runners. The Japanese rubber took seven of the slots, with Michelin's challenge falling back into the hands of Williams.

Jordan endured a mixed bag session, taking only 12th and 14th, with Jarno Trulli ahead of late call-up Ricardo Zonta. Zonta stopped in the final seconds of the session with an undetermined mechanical problem.

Speaking of which... Benetton-Renault's Jenson Button stopped on his first out lap early in the session and failed to complete a full lap. His team mate finished the session 18th overall - somewhat further back than the heady heights of ninth in Friday's first session.

As is the norm, Minardi's Tarso Marques was slowest of all, some 5.469s off Schumacher.

For full free practice session 3 results, click here.