Anthony Davidson staked his claim for a BAR race seat next season by stealing Michael Schumacher's limelight in practice for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps today.
Davidson is in with a chance of replacing the Williams-bound Jenson Button next season at BAR - as well as the vacant Sauber seat - and did his chances no harm in today's first practice.
The BAR test driver, from Hemel Hempstead, clocked the fastest lap of the session in one minute 45.104 seconds. Schumacher was 0.304secs slower on his favourite track as he prepares to win his seventh world championship.
His Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello completed the top three while Jaguar tester Bjorn Wirdheim was an excellent fourth as he looks to make the step up to race driver next season.
McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen was sixth fastest while Button was down in 11th, 2.407secs off the pace. Scotsman David Coulthard was four places further back in his McLaren.
Williams driver Juan Pablo Montoya was the first of the front-runners to hit the track and he set the early standard as Formula One's Friday testers clocked up the laps.
Davidson took over at the top soon after before Antonio Pizzonia, in what is likely to be his last race weekend for Williams, made his mark.
Giorgio Pantano became the first driver to be caught out by a Spa track renowned as a particular test of skill. He lost control of his Jordan approaching the La Source hairpin and had to push it back to the pits after stalling.
Schumacher emerged from the garage for his first meaningful lap with a little less than half an hour remaining and he immediately put his name at the top of the time sheets.
Having initially just scraped past Pizzonia's time, Schumacher used the following laps to comfortably go faster, taking over a second and a half off the Brazilian's best.
But he was forced to push and ran wide with less than 20 minutes left as team-mate Barrichello moved into second. Davidson was not finished however and deposed Schumacher with his 12th lap of the one-hour session.