Lewis Hamilton served up the perfect tonic for himself following a bout of the 'flu this week.
Hamilton, who leads the current drivers' standings by 12 points from McLaren team-mate Fernando Alonso, has been laid low since Sunday, initially with ‘a fever and a vicious cough’.
Ahead of this weekend's European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, Hamilton retired to bed late on Thursday afternoon following his round of media engagements at the German circuit.
It clearly did him the power of good as he posted the fastest time of the day following the two 90-minute practice sessions at the 5.148km-track.
The 22-year-old hailed his McLaren as the best he had driven this season at the end of the first day of a three-day test at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium ten days ago.
Hamilton clearly had his car hooked up around the Nurburgring as he was quickest in the first session with a time of one minute 32.515 seconds, which proved to be the best over the three hours.
Although second in the second session with a lap of 1:33.478 - and he also endured a spin late on onto a run-off area - he was only 0.139secs adrift of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.
The Finnish star, who trails Hamilton by 18 points, is looking for the first hat-trick of wins of his career after victories in the last two races in France and Britain.
The second Ferrari of Felipe Massa was third fastest, a quarter of a second down on team-mate Raikkonen, with Alonso again in close attendance in fourth.
With times slower than in the morning run, the afternoon top 12 were separated by less than a second, while just 1.2secs covered all but the bottom four drivers.
Behind Alonso came the Toyotas of Ralf Schumacher and Jarno Trulli, followed by the Williams of Nico Rosberg, Honda's Jenson Button, and then the BMW Saubers of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica.
David Coulthard was down in 17th for Red Bull Racing, while Super Aguri's Anthony Davidson was 18th, with Spyker's Marcus Winkelhock again bringing up the rear.
After Christijan Albers was sacked by the team last week for non-payment by one of his sponsors, Spyker opted to turn to German tester Winkelhock, despite his lack of time in the car.
Yet that was evident as he struggled throughout, spinning at one point in the first session and ending the second in the gravel.
