» 2013 Singapore GP: The Bulls dominate FP2

Sebastian Vettel has led a comfortable 1-2 on the timesheets as Friday’s two practice sessions were brought to a close for the Singapore Grand Prix, with the German clocking some seriously impressive times around the tricky Marina Bay circuit.

If Friday’s second practice session results were anything to go by, then the rest of the field may as well pack up and go home: Vettel and teammate Mark Webber were the only driver to lap in the 1m44s range, with the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton over a second adrift.

Vettel’s pace was simply astounding. With the street circuit now completely floodlight, Webber set the initial pace on the harder Pirelli tyres, before a switch to the softer option compound saw Vettel up his game, clocking a best time of 1:44.429 that was over six-tenths faster than his teammate.

Behind the two leading teams came Romain Grosjean, who was an encouraging fifth-quickest in his Lotus despite losing yet more time in the pit lane. The Frenchman beat home Fernando Alonso with his fastest flying lap.

Jenson Button was seventh quickest in his McLaren after a trouble-free run, winding up ahead of the second Lotus of Kimi Räikkönen, while Adrian Sutil and Sergio Pérez completed the top-ten.

Daniel Ricciardo showed much improved pace in his Toro Rosso, narrowly missing out on a top-ten spot in his Ferrari-powered car. The Australian was just two-hundredths of a second faster than teammate Jean-Éric Vergne, with the pair finishing just ahead of former Force India teammates Paul di Resta and Nico Hülkenberg.

Felipe Massa’s difficult weekend continued into FP2, with the Brazilian doing his prospects of landing the second Lotus seat no end of harm with a rather pathetic performance in this session. The Ferrari driver languished in fifteenth place , some 2.6 seconds slower than Vettel’s session-topping lap time.

The session had little in the way of major incidents, with a few drivers locking up and running wide over the course of the 90 minutes’ running. Pastor Maldonado provided the only major lowlight, with the Venezuelan overshooting Turn 13 as he exited Anderson Bridge, gently nosing his Williams into the barriers to earn a new front wing.

2013 Singapore Formula 1 Grand Prix – Free Practice 2 Session Times:

	Driver	Team	Time	Gap	Laps
1.	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull Racing Renault RB9	1:44.249		34
2.	Mark Webber	Red Bull Racing Renault RB9	1:44.853	+ 0.604	30
3.	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04	1:45.258	+ 1.009	34
4.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas F1W04	1:45.368	+ 1.119	33
5.	Romain Grosjean	Lotus F1 Renault E21	1:45.411	+ 1.162	18
6.	Fernando Alonso	Scuderia Ferrari F138	1:45.691	+ 1.442	32
7.	Jenson Button	McLaren Mercedes MP4-28	1:45.754	+ 1.505	30
8.	Kimi Räikkönen	Lotus F1 Renault E21	1:45.778	+ 1.529	32
9.	Adrian Sutil	Force India Mercedes VJM06	1:46.002	+ 1.753	27
10.	Sergio Pérez	McLaren Mercedes MP4-28	1:46.025	+ 1.776	31
11.	Daniel Ricciardo	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8	1:46.406	+ 2.157	34
12.	Jean-Éric Vergne	Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari STR8	1:46.429	+ 2.180	33
13.	Paul di Resta	Force India Mercedes VJM06	1:46.606	+ 2.357	33
14.	Nico Hülkenberg	Sauber Ferrari C32	1:46.808	+ 2.559	36
15.	Felipe Massa	Scuderia Ferrari F138	1:46.870	+ 2.621	33
16.	Esteban Gutiérrez	Sauber Ferrari C32	1:47.287	+ 3.038	29
17.	Valtteri Bottas	Williams Renault FW35	1:47.434	+ 3.185	33
18.	Pastor Maldonado	Williams Renault FW35	1:47.761	+ 3.512	25
19.	Giedo van der Garde	Caterham Renault CT03	1:49.434	+ 5.185	34
20.	Charles Pic	Caterham Renault CT03	1:49.526	+ 5.277	34
21.	Max Chilton	Marussia Cosworth MR02	1:49.619	+ 5.370	33
22.	Jules Bianchi	Marussia Cosworth MR02	1:49.731	+ 5.482	30