Practice 4: Button goes fastest

Button, of course, will lose 10 places on the Hockenheim grid on Sunday thanks to his engine change yesterday. Undeterred, the British star unleashed a 1m13.676s to outpace Juan Pablo Montoya of Williams by three-tenths.

Early on, Schumacher virtually matched his best time from Friday early in the session at 1m15.003s (two-thousandths slower) but it was Toyota's Olivier Panis who raised some eyebrows with the first sub-1m15s lap of the weekend at 1m14.953s.

Renault's Fernando Alonso really lowered the bar with a 1m14.490s, which spurred McLaren into full qualifying mode. Kimi Raikkonen produced a sublime 1m14.100s, which team-mate David Coulthard failed to match by a tenth, despite setting a faster first sector.

That prompted Schumacher to respond, but his next flyer was already seven-tenths down when he locked up and spun at the Sachskurve hairpin in front of his adoring crowd (wonder if he did that on purpose? - Ed). The home hero was lucky to keep out of the gravel, and performed a neat spin turn to get back to the pits.

But the times kept on tumbling. Montoya then set a spectacular 1m13.975s effort, fully committed through the Sudkurve in particular. Schuey's next effort was a 14.459s, which included the fastest third sector of the weekend, but he was slow through Turn 1. Coulthard was the next big threat to Montoya, but fell 88 thousandths short.

However, Button was on the right lap at the right time, taking a chunk of time out of Montoya's fastest lap. Does this mean Jenson will go for broke in qualifying to take pole (which will mean 11th place, of course) or was this display of pace a blindside, and will he be fuelled to the brim instead?

The final timesheet read Button, Montoya, Coulthard, Raikkonen, Alonso, Rubens Barrichello and Schumacher, although the latter came out for a final run after the chequered flag appeared. His first two sectors were his fastest of the session and should have put him well in the top five.

Jarno Trulli was eighth fastest for Renault, ahead of Williams stand-in Antonio Pizzonia. The Toyotas ended the session 10th and 11th with Cristiano da Matta and Olivier Panis respectively. Jaguar (Mark Webber and Christian Klien) and Sauber (Giancarlo Fisichella and Felipe Massa) were next up, with Nick Heidfeld (Jordan) winning the Cosworth-powered fight with Gianmaria Bruni and Zsolt Baumgartner (Minardis).

Neither Takuma Sato (BAR) or Giorgio Pantano (Jordan) appeared after their shunts this morning.