Brazilian Felipe Massa launched his championship fight-back in scorching fashion Friday as British pace-setter Lewis Hamilton crashed out of Friday's practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
Massa, whose failure to score a point for Ferrari in the opening two races raised speculation about his future with the Italian outfit, dominated both sessions on the desert track ahead of team-mate Kimi Raikkonen.
But Hamilton ended the afternoon session on the back of a scooter after his 180 kph shunt into a tyre wall with less than 10 minutes left as he battled to improve his time and stay on terms with the Ferrari men.
Hamilton, 23, lost control of his McLaren Mercedes-Benz at turn six as the car snapped sideways sending him skidding across the circuit and the sand-gravel run-off area into the barriers.
The car bounced back off the tyre wall with its two right-sided tyres hanging on by the tethers. Hamilton, who was lying fourth, was able to step from the cockpit.
Hamilton's incident was not the end of the drama with Renault's two-time world champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso and Force India's German Adrian Sutil clashing in the dying minutes.
Alonso tried to dart down the inside of the German at turn one, but Sutil closed the door on the Spaniard. The duo collided but both were able to continue.
Massa, 26, clocked one minute 31.420 secs around the 5.412 kms circuit in the afternoon session to retain top spot on the timesheets by more than nine-tenths of a second ahead of Hamitlon, the defending world champion.
The Sao Paulo-born driver needs to open his account in Sunday's third round having retired from the opening race in Australia with engine problems and sliding out in Malaysia a fortnight ago when lying second to race winner Raikkonen.
Finnish racer Raikkonen did have one brief excursion off the circuit in the opening session which cost him track time, but he is close enough to Massa to be confident of following up his victory in Kuala Lumpur.
Raikkonen is second in the championship on countback to BMW's Nick Heidfeld and just three points behind Hamilton whose mechanics face a repair job on the battered car.
Hamilton's McLaren team-mate Finn Heikki Kovalainen was third fastest, but more than 1.3 seconds slower than the searing pace set by Massa.
Poland's Robert Kubica was fifth quickest for BMW with Nico Rosberg of Germany sixth in the Toyota powered Williams.
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