F1: Vettel Remains Bullish In India P2

Formula 1

F1: Vettel Remains Bullish In India P2

The Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel led both Friday practices in India...

Jared Turner | Posted October 26, 2012 New Delhi (IND)

Sebastian Vettel toured Buddh International Circuit at 1:26:221 in Friday's second practice. (Photo: Getty Images)

Sebastian Vettel continued his recent assault on his Formula One competition with a stellar run in Friday's second practice at Buddh International Circuit, topping the time sheet after also leading P1 at the India course.

World Championship leader Vettel, who comes into Sunday's Indian GP on the heels of three consecutive wins, improved on his P1 chart-topping time of 1:27:619 with an even quicker lap — 1:26:221 — that went untouched in P2.

The stiffest challenge came from Vettel's Red Bull teammate, Mark Webber, at 1:26:339, and the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso.

Alonso, Vettel's closest pursuer in the the championship standings, turned a best lap of 1:26:820 in his newly upgraded car.

The Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen completed the top five. Filling out the rest of the top 10 were the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button followed by Nico Hulkenberg, Romain Grosjean and Bruno Senna.

Vettel leads the standings over Alonso by six points with four races left to settle the 2012 World Championship. The two drivers have combined for five World Championships and seven victories this season.

Unlike Friday's incident-free P1 session, the 90-minute P2 round proved not be so tame.

The Ferrari of Felipe Massa and the Lotus of Grosjean both went for separate spins, with the former actually spinning twice and ultimately damaging his sets of both the hard and soft tires.

Coincidentally, this weekend marks the first event since Ferrari announced that Brazilian Massa would be back with the team in 2013.

Sauber driver and future McLaren man Sergio Perez returned in P2 after sitting out P1 earlier Friday due to illness. The Mexican ranked 12th out of 24 cars.

Live coverage of Formula One in India continues Saturday with live streaming of Free Practice Three on SPEED.com at 1:30 a.m. ET.

Jared Turner is an Associate Editor for SPEED.com, covering NASCAR and Formula One, and is an Editor for TruckSeries.com. His professional motorsports writing career began in 2005.