Red Bull laid down an early marker for the Singapore Grand Prix when Sebastian Vettel stormed to the fastest time in second free practice Friday, a few hours after teammate Mark Webber led the way in the first. Armed with an upgraded package, including a new rear wing, the German clocked one minute 46.660 seconds around the floodlit Marina Bay circuit, 0.627 seconds ahead of championship leader Webber and more than a second ahead of the rest. Lapping in similar conditions expected for Sunday's night race, times in the second session were far quicker than those clocked on the damp track earlier, with the title challengers all likely to take encouragement from their performances. “The most important thing is to have a clean Friday and we had no problem with the car today,” Vettel told reporters. “It doesn't mean so much to be fastest today as it's only practice and there are no points available but it's still good to be on top and we have good pace.” McLaren expects its cars to run well this weekend and world champion Jenson Button improved from the first session to finish just behind Webber, with teammate Lewis Hamilton fifth on the timesheets. Wedged between the Britons was the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso, who continues to show good form in his late season surge for a third world title and was unlucky to stall his engine while on a very quick lap late in the session. With five races remaining, the top five drivers are separated by only 24 points in the standings and the season-long tussle for the world title looks set to continue on a circuit that exaggerates the slightest of mistakes. Force India's Adrian Sutil lost a front wheel after flipping over the kerbs of a chicane and Alonso was unable to restart his car after skidding into a runoff area when he lost control while challenging Vettel's fastest time. “This morning we wanted to do more mileage but the conditions could not make that possible,” Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali told reporters. “The situation improved in the afternoon but it's difficult to judge where we are after Fernando had a slight problem when he was running quickly. “It's tough to know how fast we are compared to the others but we will try our best in qualifying.” Rubens Barrichello was best of the rest, taking an encouraging sixth for Williams ahead of Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari. Earlier, the first action of the weekend took place on a drying track following a mid-afternoon downpour with a majority of the teams waiting for conditions to improve before completing timed laps. Webber clocked one minute 54.589 seconds to edge out Michael Schumacher by 0.119 seconds as the seven-time world champion headed a trio of Germans around the tight and demanding course. Sutil recorded a third fastest time of 1:54.827 while Vettel completed 12 laps of work in fourth place with a 1:55.137. “A pretty good first day, the first session was wet but we got some good running this afternoon,” Webber said. “Ferrari still look quick and anyone can be on pole tomorrow. Us, Ferrari or McLaren ... we will just keep trying to do our best.”
