Vettel sneaks in ahead of Alonso

Formula One: Sebastian Vettel fended off a late charge by Fernando Alonso to top the timesheet in the second session of free…

Formula One:Sebastian Vettel fended off a late charge by Fernando Alonso to top the timesheet in the second session of free practice for this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver, who is holding on to a slim hope of winning the championship, recorded the fastest lap late in the session with a time of one minute 48.650 seconds under the lights at the Marina Bay street circuit.

Alonso, who won the inaugural night race in Singapore last year, shot up into second place with his final lap of 1min 48.924secs - 0.274s slower than Vettel - to give Renault some encouragement as they look to rebuild from the 2008 Singapore race-fixing scandal.

McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen showed good pace throughout to record the third fastest time at 1:48.952 while BMW Sauber's Nick Heidfeld took fourth with a time of 1:49.098.

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Brawn GP had completed a one-two in the first session of practice earlier today with Rubens Barrichello fastest and championship leader Jenson Button close behind in second.

However, neither were able to replicate that in this session with Button fifth fastest with a time of 1:49.311 while Barrichello finished down in 11th.

Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber had been showing good pace before his session ended after 34 minutes when he lost control of his car at the final turn and spun across the track before smashing into the pit wall.

The Australian emerged unharmed but was unable to return to the circuit for the remainder of the session although his lap time of 1:49.317 was good enough to secure sixth. Williams' Nico Rosberg took seventh with Timo Glock was eighth in his Toyota.

Reigning world champion Lewis Hamilton, who has vowed to go on the attack in the final four races, could only manage ninth fastest while BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica rounded out the top 10.

Former world champion Kimi Raikkonen finished 14th with team-mate Giancarlo Fisichella, preparing for his second race with Ferrari this weekend, was two places below in 16th.