Sebastian Vettel dazzles in Singapore practice

Saturday 22nd September, 2012 1:24am
Author: SpeedCafe ©

Sebastian Vettel guides his Red Bull around the flood-lit Marina Bay venue

Sebastian Vettel has stamped Red Bull Racing’s mark on the Singapore Grand Prix weekend by topping both Friday practice sessions at the Marina Bay street circuit.

The German set the day’s best time of 1:48.34s midway through the second 90 minute outing.

Rain prior to Practice 1 ensured great track evolution across the day, with Vettel’s Practice 1 benchmark a relatively tardy 1:50.57s.

McLaren drivers were second fastest in both sessions, with Lewis Hamilton just 0.05s away from the pace in Practice 1.

Jenson Button proved Vettel’s closest competitor in the later running, albeit a full 0.3s adrift.

The Practice 2 top 10 was rounded out by Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber, Hamilton, Paul di Resta, Nico Hulkenberg, Nico Rosberg, Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean.

Bruno Senna caused the only red flag period of the day when he knocked his Williams against the Turn 19 exit wall in the second session.

Ma Qing Hua was the only reserve driver to take part in Practice 1, where he impressively lapped within 1.5s of his far more experienced HRT team-mate Pedro de la Rosa.

See below for the Practice 2 result

Pos	Driver	Team	Time/Retired	Gap
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:48.340
2	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:48.651	0.311
3	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:48.896	0.556
4	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:48.964	0.624
5	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:49.086	0.746
6	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:49.300	0.960
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:49.339	0.999
8	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:49.790	1.450
9	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:50.039	1.699
10	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:50.161	1.821
11	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:50.263	1.923
12	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	1:50.345	2.005
13	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1:50.636	2.296
14	Daniel Ricciardo	STR-Ferrari	1:50.791	2.451
15	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:51.122	2.782
16	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:51.450	3.110
17	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	1:51.452	3.112
18	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Ferrari	1:52.009	3.669
19	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	1:52.218	3.878
20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	1:52.576	4.236
21	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	1:52.863	4.523
22	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	1:52.936	4.596
23	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	1:54.448	6.108
24	Narain Karthikeyan	HRT-Cosworth	1:54.514	6.174

See below for the Practice 1 result

Pos	Driver	Team	Time/Retired	Gap
1	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:50.566
2	Lewis Hamilton	McLaren-Mercedes	1:50.615	0.049
3	Jenson Button	McLaren-Mercedes	1:51.459	0.893
4	Fernando Alonso	Ferrari	1:51.525	0.959
5	Pastor Maldonado	Williams-Renault	1:51.576	1.010
6	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing-Renault	1:51.655	1.089
7	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes	1:51.658	1.092
8	Paul di Resta	Force India-Mercedes	1:51.943	1.377
9	Daniel Ricciardo	STR-Ferrari	1:52.275	1.709
10	Sergio Perez	Sauber-Ferrari	1:52.296	1.730
11	Bruno Senna	Williams-Renault	1:52.629	2.063
12	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus-Renault	1:52.716	2.150
13	Kamui Kobayashi	Sauber-Ferrari	1:52.839	2.273
14	Michael Schumacher	Mercedes	1:52.986	2.420
15	Romain Grosjean	Lotus-Renault	1:53.028	2.462
16	Felipe Massa	Ferrari	1:53.080	2.514
17	Jean-Eric Vergne	STR-Ferrari	1:53.189	2.623
18	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:53.227	2.661
19	Timo Glock	Marussia-Cosworth	1:54.908	4.342
20	Heikki Kovalainen	Caterham-Renault	1:55.091	4.525
21	Charles Pic	Marussia-Cosworth	1:55.335	4.769
22	Vitaly Petrov	Caterham-Renault	1:55.760	5.194
23	Pedro de la Rosa	HRT-Cosworth	1:56.656	6.090
24	Qing Hua Ma	HRT-Cosworth	1:58.053	7.487