Michael Schumacher appears poised to claim his fourth successive pole position of the season, but is likely to face a fight with Jenson Button in qualifying for tomorrow's San Marino Grand Prix.
Schumacher topped the standings at the end of both 45-minute sessions at Imola this morning, and again came close to posting a sub 80-second lap at the 4.933km circuit.
But the man who has won all three grands prix so far this season from pole in his Ferrari, may not have it all his own way this afternoon as BAR-star Button is snapping at his heels.
The 24-year-old, whose best qualifying position is third which came in Belgium in his debut year in 2000, is threatening the six-times world champion's superiority.
In posting a time of one minute 20.125 seconds, Schumacher left the rest of the field way off the pace until Button nipped late on with a lap just 0.025 seconds down.
It meant the German and the Briton again stood one-two in the final practice run, as they did in the penultimate session earlier in the morning.
As for the best of the rest, that honour belonged to Renault's Fernando Alonso, who set exactly the same time as David Coulthard in his McLaren of 1:20.844, however the Spaniard taking third ahead of the Scot in fourth after setting the time first.
Coulthard did endure one hair-raising moment, however, as he lost the back end of the McLaren through the Variante Alta at one point, spinning through 360 degrees, but managed to keep the car on the track.
Juan Pablo Montoya in his Williams-BMW and the second Ferrari of Rubens Barrichello also just dipped below 81 seconds, with Takuma Sato in his BAR and the Renault of Jarno Trulli claiming seventh and eighth and a second down.