Lewis Hamilton blitzed Hockenheim to tee himself up for back-to-back grand prix victories.
The McLaren star is currently on a high since his win on home soil in the British Grand Prix 12 days ago to take over the lead of the Formula One world championship, and it on Friday showed.
Although currently in a three-way tie with Ferrari's Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen, Hamilton has the edge on countback, and he is now determined to make it an outright advantage come Sunday's race in Germany.
There was little his title rivals could do as Hamilton dominated both practice sessions, ultimately posting a hot lap that was a remarkable 0.7 seconds quicker than Massa.
It is fair to say the 23-year-old was on low fuel, but as markers go, it was one that will have the likes of Massa and Raikkonen on edge.
After being quickest in the initial 90-minute morning session by 0.122secs to team-mate Heikki Kovalainen with a lap of one minute 15.537secs, Hamilton then put that in the shade in the afternoon.
In the dying moments Hamilton stopped the clock at 1:15.025, with Massa 0.697secs adrift, and Raikkonen a shade further back.
Kovalainen was fourth quickest, followed by Mark Webber in his Red Bull who was the only other driver to finish within a second of Hamilton such was his superiority.
Fernando Alonso was sixth fastest for Renault, followed by Nico Rosberg in his Williams, another of the title challengers in BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica and team-mate Nick Heidfeld.
David Coulthard completed the top 10 in his Red Bull, with Jenson Button 13th for Honda, again 1.5secs down on Hamilton as he was in the morning.
At least all 20 drivers enjoyed a change in weather and temperature in the afternoon as the sun finally emerged following leaden skies and early rain in the morning.
The conditions at the start of that session were a throwback to the race at Silverstone when Hamilton reigned in the rain.
Lap times were initially in the low to mid one minute thirties, but as the rain relented and the quick tyres were applied, so those times naturally tumbled.
Yet unlike at Silverstone where cars endured spin after spin, there was only one main casualty, that of Kubica.
On a virtually dry track, the Pole lost control of his car heading into the Agip Kurve before sliding sideways across the gravel and into a tyre barrier.
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