Red Bull’s Sebastien Vettel threw down the gauntlet to Brawn GP pair Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello Friday by topping the times in opening free practice for Sunday’s Singapore Grand Prix.
The German is 26 points behind championship leader Button and 12 adrift of Barrichello with four Grand Prix left and knows he needs a victory here to stay in the hunt.
He hurled his car around the Marina Bay street circuit in 1:48.650 to finish 0.274 behind the late-charging Fernando Alonso, who finally gave the disgraced Renault team something to smile about. AFP
McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen showed good pace throughout to record the third fastest time of 1:48.952, while BMW Sauber’s Nick Heidfeld took fourth with a time of 1:49.098.
Brawn GP had completed a one-two in the first session of practice earlier in the day, with Rubens Barrichello fastest and championship leader Jenson Button close behind in second.
However, neither were able to replicate that in the second session, with Button fifth fastest (1:49.311) and Barrichello down in 11th. The Associated Press
Friday Practice Session 2
Pos Driver Entrant Time 1 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 01:48.6 2 Fernando Alonso Renault 01:48.9 3 Heikki Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 01:49.0 4 Nick Heidfeld BMW Sauber 01:49.1 5 Jenson Button Brawn-Mercedes 01:49.3 6 Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 01:49.3 7 Nico Rosberg Williams-Toyota 01:49.3 8 Timo Glock Toyota 01:49.3 9 Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 01:49.4 10 Robert Kubica BMW Sauber 01:49.6 11 Rubens Barrichello Brawn-Mercedes 01:49.6 12 Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 01:49.7 13 Jarno Trulli Toyota 01:49.8 14 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 01:49.9 15 Kazuki Nakajima Williams-Toyota 01:50.0 16 Giancarlo Fisichella Ferrari 01:50.3 17 Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 01:50.5 18 Vitantonio Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 01:50.6 19 Romain Grosjean Renault 01:51.0 20 Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 01:51.4
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