Ferrari's rivals, led by McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen, finally showed their teeth and ensured the first free practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix would not be entirely dominated by Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello.
Schumacher, the six-times world champion who won the opening race of the season in Melbourne, had been nine tenths of a second faster than his Brazilian team-mate and 1.8secs ahead of any race rivals after the first hour-long session at Sepang.
But just as Formula One's doom-mongers were predicting the worst - another week dominated by Ferrari, another processional race, another processional season - Raikkonen, Ralf Schumacher and Mark Webber struck.
For McLaren, Raikkonen's quickest lap of one minute 34.385secs was the highlight of their disappointing season to date as last year's Malaysian Grand Prix winner set the fastest time of the day.
He was five 100ths of a second faster than Michael Schumacher's morning session time of 1min 34.437secs and almost three tenths up on Ralf Schumacher's 1:34.693 in the Williams.
Webber's Jaguar clocked 1:35.054 in the afternoon session as all four drivers bettered the current race and qualifying laps records at Sepang, where track temperatures reached a sizzling 53 degrees.
Juan Pablo Montoya, Jarno Trulli, Felipe Massa, Fernando Alonso and David Coulthard all shone in the afternoon session to post faster times than Barrichello in the other Ferrari.
While it would be premature to suggest the gap between Ferrari and their nearest rivals had been closed, the performance of the other leading names in the afternoon session will give the sport a much-needed shot in the arm.