Sebastian Vettel stayed on top in the second practice session ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver was one of the last to do a time on the super-soft tyre and set a time over three-tenths of a second quicker than Jenson Button.
The other McLaren of Lewis Hamilton had set the pace earlier one, but Hamilton lost time by running wide at the final corner. His lap was beaten by Mark Webber and then Fernando Alonso.
Bruno Senna caused a brief stoppage in the session after clipping the barrier at turn 19. He spun to a halt at turn 20 and practice had to be red-flagged so it could be recovered.
A few other drivers had moments during the session, including Narain Karthikeyan who thumped the kerbs hard at turn ten.
Kamui Kobayashi spun at turn 18 as the session was coming to an end and had to reverse back to turn 19 so he could get going again.
The Force India pair of Paul di Resta and Nico Hulkenberg were sixth and seventh, followed by Nico Rosberg, Felipe Massa and the returnign Romain Grosjean.
the other Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen developed an hydraulic problem and he had to pit during his high-fuel run at the end of the session.
2012 Singapore Grand Prix
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Image © Singapore GP/Sutton
Cobra (@cobra47)
21st September 2012, 16:19
Except in exceptional circumstances, the challenge will be between Vettel and Hamilton with Alonso ready to take the opportunity along with Button and Webber. Pale Massa, after the exploits of Spa and Monza, is back in the mid-low positions of the ranking …
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kamui-Kobayashi-in-Ferrari-the-return/273978009380220
David-A (@david-a)
21st September 2012, 17:07
That reminds me of Mika Salo actually. Really strong on the high speed circuits (Salo finished 2nd at Hockenheim, where he gave the win to Irvine, and 3rd at Monza), compared to the other circuits.
Theo1
21st September 2012, 18:02
Agreed. Unfortunately Kimi is looking like he’s no where this weekend. He can best hope for a 5th place to stay in the title hunt.
Red Bull is clearly on top of these high downforce circuits… provided the alternator holds up. Predicting a Vettel-Alonso-Webber podium.
sushant.008
21st September 2012, 16:40
0.2 seconds separating a toro rosso and a marussia!
that’s a surprise!
dennis (@dennis)
21st September 2012, 16:54
Stellar lap by Glock!!
91jb12 (@91jb12)
21st September 2012, 17:56
Glock’s good round Singapore. Got 2nd for Toyota in 09 and had a Virgin running in the points for a while in 2010- holding off Sutil and several other much faster cars on their newer tyres.
David-A (@david-a)
21st September 2012, 17:59
And 4th in 2008, when Raikkonen hit the wall chasing him.
Dan Brown (@danbrown180)
21st September 2012, 17:27
Marussia really do look to be taking a big step forward. It looked like Caterham would be the team to pull in the Torro Rosso’s, but they’ve disappointed this season. Perhaps the Marussia / McClaren tecnical partnership is starting to pay dividends. I doubt they’ll finish last this season at least.
OOliver
21st September 2012, 17:43
Take the average times set by each team mate then see what the difference becomes. Multiply by some unknown equalising constant, and you get the true picture that Marussia are still over 2 seconds away from the next extablished team, and Caterham are just not fully tuned to the circuit.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
21st September 2012, 18:19
Especially given that Marussia don’t have KERS.
electrolite (@electrolite)
22nd September 2012, 0:12
It’s only Vergne, though…
M30
21st September 2012, 16:47
Kieth do you have the sector times for the best times? That would be a nice addition to the free practice results.
Ogurka
21st September 2012, 16:52
http://www.formula1.com/results/season/2012/877/7074/best_sector_times.html
Theo1
21st September 2012, 20:00
Hamilton losing a lot of time in S3. On the other hand, Vettel is lightning quick in that sector.
Alonso undoubtedly has the third fastest car with the McLarens and Red Bull quicker in each sector. P5 would be his deserved position on the car’s merit. The rest will be skill and luck.
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
21st September 2012, 18:21
The ultimate laps are posted in the FP analysis, look out for it on this site later.
Tango (@tango)
21st September 2012, 16:55
Wow, there’s a full .039 difference between Paul di Resta and Hulkenberg. Is that a new record ? Paul really has widen the gap today !
DaveW (@dmw)
21st September 2012, 16:57
Im impressed with Karthikeyan being forced to sit out FP1 but getting right on DLR’s pace in second practice.
cg22me (@cg22me)
21st September 2012, 18:01
Yes, maybe the threat of Ma is persuading KAR to push a bit…
It is most certainly working, if that is the case ^_^
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
21st September 2012, 18:25
@cg22me I think he also put his foot down a little more in Monza too from what I remember.
cg22me (@cg22me)
21st September 2012, 20:03
Exactly… Beating DLR, never mind that, beating a team mate, for the first time in quite a while ^_^
It can only be a good sign for poor ol’ Karthikeyan!
Paul A (@paul-a)
21st September 2012, 17:26
With all the comments about how this will be a “close race”, is anyone else surprised that the spread for the top ten is approx 2 seconds? Even the first three are over half a second apart. I know that FP times are not necessarily “reliable” for all sorts of reasons, but I really thought these times might have been closer today…
Keith, do you have (easily — you do enough splendid work already) available “spread statistics” of this sort?
bosyber (@bosyber)
21st September 2012, 17:41
Part that is due to the lap-time being longer than at most tracks, Monza was about 20-25s shorter, (1:25 versus 1:48 in FP2), or about 20% of the Singapore time; a 25% bigger spread would be normal at least. Probably more because at this track the aero advantage of the top teams counts for more (tough I do now see that the fastest quali times of the top 10 were well within 0.7s in Hungary).
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
21st September 2012, 17:59
Webber seems to be so “track dependant”. If he likes the track, he’s good and he’s able to challenge Vettel. But if he doesn’t like the track, he slips down a lot.
Or maybe he doesn’t like Singapore because he struggles there? there’s always a huge difference between him and Vettel here.
raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
21st September 2012, 19:19
I think he doesn’t like circuits where kerb-riding is important. I think generally it’s the slower circuits where he can’t hold up to Vettel, with Monaco being the exception.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
21st September 2012, 22:48
@raymondu999 or maybe he gets depressed about the dullness of some circuits, particularly Abu Dhabi. He always says he hates those circuits, and it shows…
davidnotcoulthard
22nd September 2012, 0:50
Tilkedromes? OK, OK, I understand, Mark…
raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
22nd September 2012, 3:40
Hmm. Possible. Singapore and Abu Dhabi are the ones that really stick out as Mark not being able to light a candle – let alone hold one – to Seb.
David-A (@david-a)
22nd September 2012, 7:21
Yet Barcelona is supposed to be one of his favorites?
AndrewTanner (@andrewtanner)
21st September 2012, 18:28
That’s one heck of a gap from Vettel. This circuit really does separate the cars so much and perfectly displays just how the RBR philosophy of high downforce works for them at this track. I’d like to see them do well this weekend. They had a dismal trip to Italy and Vettel was a pleasure to watch at Spa.
Max Jacobson (@vettel1)
21st September 2012, 18:59
I wonder if Vettel can recover the deficit to Alonso; I’m hoping for the best!
M30
22nd September 2012, 1:11
That is fine with me as long as Hamilton does it first!
raymondu999 (@raymondu999)
21st September 2012, 19:23
I had “special accommodation” for FP2, but I spent a bit of FP1 really watching from different points in the circuit to get a feel (best places to really see if a driver is “on it” is T13 and the sequence at 15/16/17 – the first chicane of S3), and Vettel drove like he was on a mission. Provided his alternator holds he’s my victory favorite.
HUHHII (@huhhii)
21st September 2012, 20:46
Looks like yet again Lotuses are well off the pace :/ Their double DRS system has to be magnificient upgrade or otherwise Kimi’s hunt for the title is pretty much over.
Angelica
22nd September 2012, 0:52
Lotus has had really disappointing pace in the last two races, and it seems like are even slower here.