Schumacher on top in practice 3 - Europe

Schumacher - a four-time winner at the Nurburgring - set the pace in 1:30.788 with six minutes of the hour-long session to go, beating his Brazilian teammate Felipe Massa by three tenths of a second.

But the drama did not end there for Schumacher, as Williams's Mark Webber almost rammed into the back of the German while entering the pitlane after his hot lap.

Ralf Schumacher, who won at the Nurburgring in 2003, set a late lap that was good enough for third after languishing near the back of the field in his Toyota for much of the session.

BMW Sauber's Jacques Villeneuve, who took the first and last of his 11 wins at the German track, was fourth, ahead of the Renaults of Giancarlo Fisichella and world champion Fernando Alonso.

McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen woke up the large German crowd after 20 minutes with a quick spin in the Mercedes Arena, from which the Finn returned to the track without damage.

The Woking-based team could only manage tenth for Raikkonen and 17th for Juan Pablo Montoya, but appeared to have plenty of time in their pockets for qualifying.

Fisichella went one better than Raikkonen five minutes later when he locked up his inside front wheel and slid off the track at the Dunlop Kurve, filling his Renault's sidepods with gravel.

Super Aguri's French debutant Franck Montangy, who impressed with his initial pace on Friday, was the first driver to complete a lap, and continued his acclimatisation period by knocking over a second off his best Friday time and beating his more experienced Japanese teammate Takuma Sato.

Pos  Driver        Team                     Time              Laps
 1.  M.Schumacher  Ferrari             (B)  1:30.788           12
 2.  Massa         Ferrari             (B)  1:31.093 + 0.305   10
 3.  R.Schumacher  Toyota              (B)  1:31.395 + 0.607   21
 4.  Villeneuve    BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:31.531 + 0.743   13
 5.  Fisichella    Renault             (M)  1:31.584 + 0.796   12
 6.  Alonso        Renault             (M)  1:31.807 + 1.019   14
 7.  Button        Honda               (M)  1:32.104 + 1.316   16
 8.  Klien         Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:32.197 + 1.409   13
 9.  Liuzzi        Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:32.290 + 1.502   17
10.  Raikkonen     McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:32.320 + 1.532   11
11.  Rosberg       Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:32.459 + 1.671   15
12.  Speed         Toro Rosso-Cosworth (M)  1:32.505 + 1.717   18
13.  Barrichello   Honda               (M)  1:32.534 + 1.746   18
14.  Webber        Williams-Cosworth   (B)  1:32.711 + 1.923   16
15.  Heidfeld      BMW-Sauber          (M)  1:32.773 + 1.985   16
16.  Coulthard     Red Bull-Ferrari    (M)  1:32.779 + 1.991   15
17.  Montoya       McLaren-Mercedes    (M)  1:32.989 + 2.201   12
18.  Trulli        Toyota              (B)  1:33.120 + 2.332   24
19.  Monteiro      MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:33.744 + 2.956   19
20.  Albers        MF1-Toyota          (B)  1:34.469 + 3.681   21
21.  Montagny      Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:35.706 + 4.918   20
22.  Sato          Super Aguri-Honda   (B)  1:36.082 + 5.294   15

All timing unofficial