Red Bull comfortably quickest in second practice

2013 Singapore Grand Prix second practice

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Red Bull were emphatically fastest in the second practice session in Singapore.

Sebastian Vettel produced a lap of 1’44.249 on the super-soft tyres putting him more than half a second fastest than team mate Mark Webber and a second quicker than the other runners.

However Webber had been the quickest of the two Red Bulls while they were circulating on the medium compounds. Most drivers found a significant performance gain from the softer tyres in the region of two seconds per lap.

Behind the flying Red Bulls there was little separating the Mercedes drivers from the quickest of the Lotuses. That was Romain Grosjean, who endured another disrupted session.

Grosjean again missed some of the early running due to car problems. Once he joined the track he reported braking problems, then pulled into the pits again with a quarter of an hour to go. Despite the interruptions he managed to post the fifth-quickest time.

Fernando Alonso was sixth for Ferrari with team mate Felipe Massa 1.2 seconds slower in 15th place. His future team mate Kimi Raikkonen was eighth, Jenson Button separating the pair.

One of the Force Indias made it into the top ten thanks to Adrian Sutil, who was two hundredths of a second faster than Sergio Perez’s McLaren.

The only driver to make contact with the wall was Pastor Maldonado, who ran wide at turn 13 and nudged a barrier with his front wing. That forced him into the pits for a replacement.

Pos.No.DriverCarBest lapGapLaps
11Sebastian VettelRed Bull-Renault1’44.24934
22Mark WebberRed Bull-Renault1’44.8530.60430
39Nico RosbergMercedes1’45.2581.00934
410Lewis HamiltonMercedes1’45.3681.11933
58Romain GrosjeanLotus-Renault1’45.4111.16218
63Fernando AlonsoFerrari1’45.6911.44232
75Jenson ButtonMcLaren-Mercedes1’45.7541.50530
87Kimi RaikkonenLotus-Renault1’45.7781.52932
915Adrian SutilForce India-Mercedes1’46.0021.75327
106Sergio PerezMcLaren-Mercedes1’46.0251.77631
1119Daniel RicciardoToro Rosso-Ferrari1’46.4062.15734
1218Jean-Eric VergneToro Rosso-Ferrari1’46.4292.18033
1314Paul di RestaForce India-Mercedes1’46.6062.35733
1411Nico HulkenbergSauber-Ferrari1’46.8082.55936
154Felipe MassaFerrari1’46.8702.62133
1612Esteban GutierrezSauber-Ferrari1’47.2873.03829
1717Valtteri BottasWilliams-Renault1’47.4343.18533
1816Pastor MaldonadoWilliams-Renault1’47.7613.51225
1921Giedo van der GardeCaterham-Renault1’49.4345.18534
2020Charles PicCaterham-Renault1’49.5265.27734
2123Max ChiltonMarussia-Cosworth1’49.6195.37033
2222Jules BianchiMarussia-Cosworth1’49.7315.48230

2013 Singapore Grand Prix

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Image © Red Bull/Getty

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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62 comments on “Red Bull comfortably quickest in second practice”

  1. It’s damage limitation weekend for RB :)

  2. Yippee! How many seconds clear do you think Vettel will be by the start of lap 2? I’m going for 1.3s

    1. 2.7 – Hes usually 1.3 by the first lap.

      1. that’s pretty accurate

  3. We have seen a few times this year that Mercedes lead FP1, RBR FP2 then its a battle for pole- hopefully the same tomorrow night!! Mark needs one in his final year!!

    What is happening with Jules of late?? It seems to me his is off the great fine form he saw in his first few races now not looking as strong against Max. Any thoughts??

    1. @garns dare I say it, I think Chilton has caught up. Bianchi of course could just be on a different programme to Chilton and I’d still expect him to out-qualify and out-race Max but I think it’s more due to the fact Chilton has legitimately caught up.

      On mentioning Marussia though, I really hope Caterham get a 13th place (if that’s what they need) so they can overtake Marussia. Yet again they’ve been the better team as the season has progressed.

      1. @vettel1 BTW, remember to make the predictions. Game is on ! Whoever gets the lowest score wins, but be fair and put real predictions !

        tho with my luck, a Marussia will probably win. :P

        1. @fer-no65 I’ve gone for Vettel (1:23.1): Vettel-Webber-Hamilton-Alonso-Grosjean :P

          Sadly I won’t be there to compare until Monday though – I’m on a hike so is won’t be able to watch qualifying & the race until then :/

          1. I expect qualification time to be much better than that :P

          2. @paeschil you’re probably right haha! That’s about a second from FP2, so really it just depends on how much the track evolves and if it rains before the session!

          3. @vettel I’ve gone for Vettel (1:43.616) and VET-HAM-WEB-ALO-ROS

      2. @vettel1 – I agree with Chilton catching up. Bianchi had much more experience than Chilton before the season and Marussia were comfortably faster than Caterham. Now that Chilton has caught up (thanks in part to Bianchi missing most FP1 sessions) and Caterham overtaking Marussia, Bianchi doesn’t look as good.

        I still think he’s a very good driver who deserves a better spot than the worst team’s 2nd driver.

        1. Well it’s very easy. Bianchi has driven on the limit of the car since the beginning of the season. And now finally Chilton has also found that limit, but it took him much longer than Bianchi to drive on the limit of the car’s possibilities.

      3. Singapore could be decisive for Caterham or Marussia if it’s a race of attrition. Remember Glock getting 12th place last year?

        1. @deej92 I had that in mind whilst writing the comment – it’s a shame neither team has Glock: he’s the true Singapore specialist! Alonso, Vettel and Hamilton are just good pretty much everywhere ;)

      4. Caught up? Still haven’t out-qualified or outraced him or even been close to.. Wouldn’t call that catching up.

      5. @garns @vettel1 agree with everything Max says, also remember that Chilton raced here last year in GP2, winning the feature race, whereas Bianchi has not (as far as I know) raced this circuit before.

    2. No matter how good a driver is, they’re bound to lose the upper hand at least a few times… I mean even the then erratic and crash-prone Petrov outqualified star driver Kubica on merit twice in 2010.

  4. Looks like a Mercedes 1 2 :)

  5. Will their gearboxes hold up though? I think that will be a key question for this weekend.

    1. @vettel1 Webber’s might not, but you can bet your house that Vettel’s will.

    2. Or maybe brakes like in 2009!?

  6. Please, please don’t give us another boring weekend where Vettel has a 1.5 second lead by the end of lap 2 and we already know the outcome of the race.

  7. Over a second between Alonso and Massa? It looks like Massa’s recent comments abut racing for himself rubbed Ferrari the wrong way.

    1. It seems Massa now gets the “Upgrades”

      1. maybe a simple hostage situation deliver or miss someone ; D

    2. It was FP2(practice) buddy.. we never know, they might ‘ve been running different programs…

  8. Lewis might storm into pole position, but before turn 4 Vettel will continue where he left at Monza. Not a single bit of doubt about it !

    1. Absolutely guaranteed victory providing his car holds up. Vettel is in fantastic form and there isn’t anyone to compete with him at the moment. Most drivers and teams have given up on titles this year and are looking to 2014. Due to the lack of competition, I imagine Red Bull are also leaving Vettel to enjoy pressure-free races until the end of the year.

    2. @fer-no65 We will see about that ! I still have a modicum of hope for Lewis .

    3. The straightline speed of Mercedes and Red Bull are matched at 288 to 287. So Lewis can defend from Vettel this time.

  9. Mercs sandbagging!!

  10. I love F1. I love the cars. I love the tracks. I love the spectacles. I even love Ted Kravtiz. Even I though, an F1 veteran of many decades of devoted watching, turned off that session mid way through. 6/10ths. There really is nothing more to be said.

    I have to say, with the rest of season set to be “The Red Bull Roadshow – Featuring Sebastian Vettel” and with the championship even more so in that vane, F1 feels to me to be a rather unwell sport. The problem hinges on that final word: sport. The Singapore Grand Prix was not intended just to make a nice wallpaper on a PC, it is fundamentally a spectacle hinged around competition. And yet there is no competition in F1 at the moment; no rivals for Vettel and Red Bull. Now for you or I, that isn’t really a problem, because us hardcore F1 fans are perfectly entertained by the intricacies of strategy up and down the field, and will try and get ourselves excited by saying things like, “Chilton is closer to his teammate than he has been all season.” However, unfortunately we F1 Fanatics don’t make up the majority of F1’s viewership, so whilst we can be perfectly content watching Button doing a short first stint two stop strategy, Johnny-Casual-F1-Viewer and his blatantly uninterested Mum sat on a sofa somewhere in Leeds, has got his thumb hovering over the button that’ll change the channel to Come Dine With Me. If Vettel rocks up in Australia next year and wins the race from pole, then I’m afraid the effects will be fatal among casual F1 watchers, and whilst we’ll all be watching still as eager as ever, a sharp fall in viewing figures would be a bad thing for F1 no matter how you cut it.

    Red Bull really are on another planet, but makes their planet such an altar of speed? Surely it’s not just Newey and Vettel, I mean the other 500+ people don’t just turn up to assemble the garage, make sure Vettel has the AAA batteries for his rather nice Bose headphones and make sure the other bloke has a half decent setup, do they? But that’s also not the case either at Ferrari, Mercedes, Lotus and McLaren, all of which are teams that are laden to bursting with championship winning engineers, drivers and designers, just like Red Bull. And yet they are clearly in another league. So what is Red Bull’s USP? What is their secret?

    1. What is your point?

      1. @mnm101

        Exactly what I was thinking.

        I guess it’s a rant and a question rolled into one?

  11. Snoozefest

  12. @Max Jacobson

    I think you may be right Max! A few months ago (or not even) Jules could go right to the top, and now no!!? Ok he was not at The Horse JUST yet. Neither is The Hulk- and I hoped he would be but love the new line up at Ferrari………… but I digress.

    But really who do Ferrari want long term- Nico- Jules- others?? We dont know and they wont know either.

    I was at the Paddock Club entrance in Japan in 2012 (for REAL F1 fans Suzuka ia a great place to see drivers if you can get Paddock Club) and most drivers are chatty- not many people and they are comfortable.

    Max went through (and I think he was still a 3rd driver then) and I heard a comment “only hear because Father is rich”.
    No good! Senna’s Dad is more loaded than all of us togther (except Keith :) but that did not mean his son was not a champion did it………………………………….. I guess the cash didnt hurt LOL

  13. Here’s what will happen:
    Mercs dont find qualy sweet spot, vettel pole from webber in 2nd.
    At start webber has a good start and is on inside of vettel into turn 1 but as usual backs out of it to be safe. Webber falls to 4th as alonso and hamilton capitalise on his poor opening first sector.
    Alonso takes 2nd from hamiltonafter 1st stop

    1. Vettel wins by 20seconds as safety cars all play into his hands. Webber stays 4th due to gearbox and kers issue. Cringing podium interviews cap off a boring weekend. Done.

    2. It’s mostly academic who wins. (Unless Alonso wins while Vettel retires) Even finishing three points ahead of Vettel in the race would be a setback for Alonso in the WDC chase.

    3. and then Vettel’s gears go plonk plonk plonk ..

      why don’t we see the race before assuming things

  14. Oooh damn… Another boring Vettel-RBR crushing and dominating victory, in a circuit where overtaking is not that abundant…skip watching this snoozefest!

    1. don’t watch it then! But don’t moan about it…

  15. So, i just got back home from the track. Was seated at turn 1 today as i bought the combination package, tomorrow will be on the Padang straight.

    What i saw:

    – The Red Bulls are 1 level above the other cars. The way they tackle turn 1-3 is ridiculous, the ease of control AND the speed it does is incredible.
    – Likewise, you can tell the difference with the Marussia and Caterham, they just don’t have the speed
    – It’s quite fun observing the different styles between all of the drivers. Example, they can choose to enter turn 1 slower, but blast out from turn 3 after maintaining speed from turn 2. Or, banzai into turn 1, ride the kerb at turn 2, but exit from turn 3 may be affected.
    – Toro Rosso seems to be running on a much lower ride height compared to the other teams, they can constantly generate sparks on the curve from turn 2-3.
    – Most drivers will miss the braking point at turn 1, perhaps finding the limits for themselves?

  16. That moment when u you admit that 2013 will be exactly like 2011,Vettel runs away and the rest collect points from each other

  17. Seems track changed/evolved quite a bit – would also explain the gaps. in the pecking order the only thing that seems clear is – RBR and Merc on top and Lotus / Ferrari going for the left-overs.

  18. Alonso – Massa time difference in both FPs makes me wonder.
    Is Ferrari really sabotaging Massa because of what he said ?!?! Is Massa trying to sabotage Ferrari/Alonso by keeping the car out of points ?!?!

    1. @corrado-dub Massa must test new components while Alonso works on his setup … always the same …

    2. @corrado-dub they were running different programs. On Sky Sports they showed different front wings on the cars.

    3. If there is something playing in the background then the former is more likely than the latter seeing as Massa is desperate to show he can still race to increase his chances of a race seat next year.

  19. Occasional heroic moments from Lewis aside, this is turning into such a dull season I’m thinking we should bring Piquet back to throw it in the wall and ‘improve the show’.

    1. @dafffid

      Which heroic moments?

  20. I will lay down and watch it without the extra realtime data and extras, and let the nature of the race put me to sleep… or not

  21. @juergen haha great comment, but i think we could have some surprise in the race, right in the middle, just when everyone starting to sleep… and have a great fight for the win in the last stint.

  22. Michael Brown (@)
    20th September 2013, 20:46

    Are there any onboards available? I’d like to see how the lap is with the new turn 10.

  23. People need to get a grip. While it’s nice for us fans if the WDC goes down to the final race, that’s never a sure thing in F1 and there’s no way it can be made a sure thing. This is a not a feature of the current era, it’s been the reality of F1 throughout its history. Fans who do not or cannot accept the nature of F1 should ask themselves why they follow it in the first place.

    As for the particular driver and team who are winning a lot, I’d like to see tougher competition myself. But I apply my criticism to those who deserve it – to the drivers not named Vettel and the teams not named Red Bull. They are the ones who are at fault here for failing to be competitive enough, not Red Bull and Vettel for being “too good”.

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