Sebastian Vettel looks primed to pick up his third straight win in the Formula One Indian Grand Prix after the Red Bull driver topped the timesheets in the two practise sessions on Friday at the Buddh International Circuit.
Vettel has dominated on his two trips to India so far, and the German, who has been near unstoppable with five straight wins, led teammate Mark Webber in another Red Bull one-two.
The three-time world champion timed 1:25.722 to top the practice session, with Webber well behind 1:26.011.
"The track was pretty good at the start of today's sessions, better than last year I would say," Webber said. "However, the conditions in FP2 are normally different to what we have in the race, so it's hard to say how we will go tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday, but hopefully we have the pace and can control the race. The car is very consistent, but we need to work on the tyres and make sure we get the most out of them."
Lotus' Romain Grosjean continued his recent good form with the third fastest time, while Lewis Hamilton laid a marker ahead of qualifying with fourth.
"That was a good start to the weekend," Grosjean said. "The car feels good and we made progress through the day to make it better. It's still a struggle to find grip here which can make things interesting as you find the limits, but the pace of our car relative to our rivals looks quite good.
"I'm hopeful of another solid day tomorrow (Saturday) which should give us another strong qualifying position if the evidence of today is anything to go by. We'll do everything we can to take the fight to Red Bull.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, the only man who can stop Vettel from winning his fourth consecutive F1 drivers' champions title, was fifth fastest.
"It was a Friday like any other, apart from a mechanical problem this morning which reduced my track time," Alonso said. "Fortunately, this did not affect the programme too much, with a first session given over mainly to getting used to this track again. It's always important to get the right feeling for a circuit, and especially to try the tyres, that are very important here.
"We also got a first idea of our race pace and also the rate of tyre degradation: we must take into account that track conditions on Sunday will be very different to today. The situation is not that different to recent races. We are a bit behind in performance terms and tomorrow we must try and get a good starting position to get away well in the race and make it to the podium."
Nico Rosberg, Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen were next with McLaren drivers Sergio Perez and Jenson Button rounding out the top ten.
Where to watch
The third practice session is scheduled for 11 a.m. IST with the qualifying session at 2 p.m. You can catch the action live online by clicking the official link HERE.
