Red-hot Vettel sets the pace in Singapore

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel tops the times in the opening day’s practice.

SINGAPORE: Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel threw down the gauntlet ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix with a hugely impressive series of laps to top the times in the opening day’s practice.

The German tyro, who has slipped 24 points behind teammate Mark Webber in a tight championship race, convincingly outpaced his title rivals under floodlights with a best lap of one minute and 46.660 seconds.

It lifted him 0.627 clear of Webber in second as the Red Bulls set themselves up for today’s decisive qualifying, with a good position on the grid crucial on a street circuit where overtaking opportunities are limited.

Defending world champion Jenson Button of McLaren finished third with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, who won the last race in Monza, fourth.

Alonso looked on track to better Vettel but got it wrong at turn 17 and was forced onto the escape road with 23 minutes left, leaving him to walk back to the pits.

Button’s teammate Lewis Hamilton was fifth fastest, with veteran Brazilian Rubens Barrichello in a Williams sixth, the other Ferrari of Felipe Massa seventh and Nico Rosberg in a Mercedes eighth.

The race to the drivers’ title is on a knife-edge going into Sunday’s night race, with Webber leading on 187 points, five ahead of Hamilton with Alonso third on 166.

Button is still in the hunt with 164 points while Vettel is fifth, a point further adrift.

This means that the top five are separated by just 24 points. one point fewer than the 25 awarded for a single race win.

The track dried out for the second practice after being declared wet for the opening session, which Webber topped, and with conditions much better the drivers pushed hard to force the times significantly lower.

In high humidity and with a track temperature of 28 Celsius, it was a punishing session with several drivers brushing walls or hitting the kerbs, including Adrian Sutil whose day ended early with a damaged front suspension.

Vettel came out late but quickly got in the groove and lowered the bar even further in a series of stunning laps that set the benchmark.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2010.