For some races Red Bull Racing has not been in the headlines in F1, with McLaren taking much of the glory. On Friday in Singapore, however, Sebastian Vettel set the pace in the first session on Friday evening, with a lap that was 0.049s faster than Lewis Hamilton’s best. Jenson Button was third, ahead of Fernando Alonso, Pastor Maldonado, Mark Webber and the Force India duo Nico Hulkenberg and Paul di Resta.
It was a surprise to see Daniel Ricciardo in ninth, ahead of Sergio Perez, Bruno senna, Kimi Raikkonen and Kamui Kobayashi. Michael Schumacher was 14th ahead of a returning Romain Grosjean, Felipe Massa, Jean-Eric Vergne and Nico Rosberg.
At the back there was a surprise with Marussia’s Timo Glock outrunning the two Caterhams and Charles Pic underlining the team’s progress by beating Vitaly Petrov to 21st. Pedro de la Rosa was 23rd with China’s
Ma Qing Hua last in the second HRT.
It was interesting to note that Williams did not run Valtteri Bottas as it has at most races. Bruno Senna stopped out on the track, but had done a large number of laps by that point.
Like earlier races, tyre wear will determine the outcome; McLaren seemed consistent on the long stints.