Vettel tops second Singapore practice

Teams got back to work after a two-hour break, hopeful of having a trouble-free session this time.

Within four minutes, two thirds of the grid were already on the floodlit track.

The top three teams’ drivers were among the late starters but made their way at the top of the standings soon enough. Ten minutes in, Alonso was leading from Webber and Massa. Vettel was on his way while Hamilton was back in the pits after completing an installation lap.

Vettel’s first effort moved him up to P1. The Red Bull driver kept pushing and further lowered the benchmark. His teammate Mark Webber closed within a second to make it a provisional Red Bull one-two.

After a busy first thirty minutes, the session became calmer. Lewis Hamilton eventually left the pits with just under an hour remaining. He swiftly moved up the order. Kamui Kobayashi had an eventful run, hitting a kerb and grazing the wall outside of Turn 12.

Shortly before the halfway point, Jenson Button ran wide at Turn 14 and was left facing the barrier. He couldn’t get his car to reverse and had to climb out and walk away for it. He was in for a ride back to the pits. In the meantime, both Red Bull drivers completed a long run on the soft tyre.

The time had now come for the teams to do some running on the red-ringed super soft tyre.

Massa made good use of it to top the list. As he was looking for improvement, Sebastien Buemi hit the wall and broke his front right suspension. Once the track was clear, Fernando Alonso could launch in a hot lap. He was almost six tenths faster than his teammate. Vettel was also on track and ready to sample the super soft tyre.

His second effort was two tenths faster than Alonso’s and the German reclaimed top spot. Hamilton had to abort his first flying lap courtesy of traffic and needed a lap to cool down his tyres before pushing again. He could only go third fastest, 0.7s slower than Vettel.

The final part of the session was dedicated, as usual, to long runs on heavy fuel loads.

Vettel’s best time remained unchallenged. Alonso was second fastest with Hamilton third. Massa was next in the standings, ahead of Webber. The top six were in a class of their own as they were over a second clear on the rest of the field.

Best of the rest was Michael Schumacher. Sutil, Pérez, Kobayashi and Button completed the top ten.