Toyota’s
Olivier Panis provided the catalyst for the hard-hitting fight when
he set a time of one minute and 14.953 seconds.
The impressive
result ignited an otherwise slow session with Fernando Alonso (Renault),
Kimi Raikkonen (McLaren) and Juan Pablo Montoya (Williams) all staking
their claim at the top.
But despite
the trio’s impressive times it was Button that ended Saturday
morning in the limelight with his lap that was over a second quicker
than the Hockenheim lap record.
Michael Schumacher
had been the man setting the benchmarks before the 45-minute run
kicked off but as the pace quickened the Ferrari star fell away
finishing the morning with a time of one minute and 14.459 seconds
for seventh. He also managed to spin at the Sachs Kurve but didn't
cause any damage to the car.
Takuma
Sato (BAR) and Giorgio Pantano (Jordan) were the only men unable
to record a result after they both crashed out of Saturday’s
opening session.