Frenchman Olivier Panis was the surprise pace-setter as practice got underway for the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring in Germany today.
Panis, who scored his first point of a disappointing season at the last race in Canada, powered his Toyota to top spot as the championship's main players were forced out of the limelight for once.
The 36-year-old finished just 0.027seconds ahead of Jaguar's Mark Webber though it would be a major upset if he stayed there for the rest of the weekend with Toyota having a difficult second season in Formula One.
McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, who now trails Ferrari's Michael Schumacher by three points in the drivers' standings, posted a late fast time to take third spot for McLaren with Jarno Trulli fourth for Renault.
Trulli's Renault team-mate Fernando Alonso was fifth fastest while Antonio Pizzonia was sixth for Jaguar - only Panis and Raikkonen of the top six had not taken part in private testing earlier.
Britain's David Coulthard - who desperately needs to win Sunday's race to keep his flagging title hopes alive - was seventh fastest in the other
McLaren-Mercedes while Ralf Schumacher was eighth quickest in his Williams-BMW.
Schumacher senior was 10th for Ferrari while team-mate Rubens Barrichello was two places further back having damaged the nose on the front of his car late in the session.
The Ferrari duo were split by the Williams of Juan Pablo Montoya who was almost 1.4 secs slower than Panis although it could be a different story in single lap qualifying later today.
Jenson Button was back in 15th spot for BAR-Honda while Jordan's Ralph Firman, fourth in private testing, and Minardi's Justin Wilson were 18th and 20th respectively.
The session had to be stopped earlier when Sauber's Nick Heidfeld lost his nose cone after hitting one of the bollards.