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Sebastian Vettel gave Red Bull early hope that it can remain in mathematical title contention beyond this weekend’s Singapore Grand Prix by topping Friday’s second practice session. The German, who is 26 points adrift of title leader Jenson Button with just 40 left up for grabs, dislodged McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen from the head of the order with six minutes to go to end the opening day under the lights with the best time of 1m48.650s.

Kovalainen was then relegated to third in the closing seconds as Fernando Alonso harried his R29 around the bumpy street circuit to a time just 0.274s slower than Vettel, giving Renault a much needed boost after its most troubled of weeks.

BMW’s big car upgrade introduced for this weekend’s race contiued to show promising potential as Nick Heidfeld claimed fourth, with Button dropping to fifthj following Brawn’s morning 1-2. The second RBR of Mark Webber finished the day in sixth despite crashing out of the session after just 35 minutes. The Australian, at the time the quickest man on the circuit, ran wide over the kerbs coming round the fast final right-hander and spun into the pit wall, the impact wrecking his RB5’s front wing and doing further damage to the left-hand side of the car.