Normally on a Friday Ferrari like to keep their powder dry, but not so today at Silverstone as Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel ended the first day of free practice for the British Grand Prix top of the timing screens, a couple of tenths faster than title rival Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes.
It would suggest that Ferrari have a handy car for this race, with more in hand likely to be dialled in as the weekend progresses.
Vettel's best lap time of 1:27.552 was 0.187 of a second up on Hamilton's best in the 90-minute afternoon session held under glorious sunshine and a large enthusiastic crowd.
Hamilton, winner for the past four years at Silverstone, had started the day by leading a Mercedes one-two in the sunny opening session.
That was still slower than Hamilton's morning time of 1:27.487, however, with Vettel third then and half a second slower.
Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas, with a new engine in his car after last weekend's mechanical retirement in Austria, was second and third fastest respectively in the two sessions.
Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen traded fourth and fifth places while Max Verstappen, winner in Austria for Red Bull, was sixth in the morning but crashed after lunch without setting a time.
The 20-year-old Dutchman had ended the first session early after he was told to stop the car.
Haas's Romain Grosjean had a heavy crash at the fast first corner, slamming into the tyre barriers after failing to close the drag reduction system (DRS), in the morning and did not take part in practice two.
Team boss Guenther Steiner said the team needed to rebuild the chassis.
Grosjean's teammate Kevin Magnussen and McLaren's Fernando Alonso were called to see stewards for a "potentially dangerous manoeuvre" after an incident between them early on but stewards ruled there was no further action needed.
"Magnussen tried to hit me two times - in one and three," Alonso reported over the radio. "Very dangerous."
The Spaniard gave his beleaguered team reason to smile, after an explosive week at Woking, as he ended up best of the rest in sixth albeit 1.7 seconds down on the top time.
After a subdued morning, Renault got going with Nico Hulkenberg posting the seventh fastest time, a couple of tenths faster than his teammate Carlos Sainz in 11th.
The Force India duo of the Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez were eighth and ninth respectively, with Charles Leclerc tenth in the Sauber.
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