Practising perfection: In ominous sign for rivals,Vettel tops P1 and P2 timings

This relatively relaxed approach towards these sessions may explain why these have been the only times of late when Vettels competitors have gotten (or,more appropriately,have been allowed to get) a whiff of his Hungry Heidi.

That said,there was no such luck for the chasing pack on Friday,as the triple world champion flew off the blocks,and by the time the chequered flag was waved in the hazy afternoon,his name was on top of both FP1 and FP2 time sheets. His performance,1:25.722s in FP2,masked the fact the car experienced a glitch in the afternoon.

It was good,it felt good. Weve been able to run through our whole programme,even though in the afternoon we had a minor issue with the soft tyres. I lost much of the grip on the rear and we took the time to go through all possible causes and when we got out again everything seemed fine, he said in an interview with the official F1 website.

Vettel is likely to seal his fourth consecutive world title in India. Only two drivers in Formula One history,Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher,have done that,but Vettel,at 26,could be the youngest to achieve the feat. If the enormity of the impending achievement is weighing on his mind,he is doing a pretty good job of hiding it. I try not to think too much of the consequences of the result on Sunday. And that is hard enough when every second question revolves around it … There is the saying that you shouldnt count your chickens before they are hatched and that also goes for points.

Best and the rest

Meanwhile,teammate Webber finished nearly half a second behind,but also had some daylight between himself and the rest of the field. Ferraris Fernando Alonso,Vettels nearest competitor (if the term nearest could indeed be used to describe the yawning gulf of 90 world championship points between them) and the only one who is keeping the race alive,didnt look like he was keen on continuing this meaningless pursuit any longer. He suffered a gearbox problem in the first session while he only finished fifth in the afternoon,behind,besides Vettel and Webber,Lotuss Romain Grosjean and Mercedes Lewis Hamilton.

It was a Friday like any other, Alonso said later. 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.

At the Buddh circuit,where overtaking is difficult,starting positions carry extra significance. But qualifying has been a major area of concern for Alonso and Ferrari. The Spaniard has finished outside the top two rows in every race since Bahrain in late April. Starting from the British Grand Prix in July,in fact,he has tended to only narrowly make the cut for the final qualifying session.

More than Alonso and Ferrari,the real challenge to Vettel and Red Bull on Saturday may come from Hamliton (Mercedes) and the fast-improving Grosjean (Lotus). The Frenchman Grosjean has been a revelation lately,outqualyfing and outpointing his more celebrated teammate Kimi Raikkonen in the last few races including the last two in Korea and Japan where he finished on the podium.

Before the qualifying,however,there will be the small matter of the final practice session on Saturday morning. Ususally,this one-hour morning period gets overshadowed by the scramble for the starting grid in the afternoon. But recently,FP3 has also been a fairly reliable indicator of how Vettel is going to perform in a race in the last seven races,if he has topped the final practice session,he has gone on to win the GP as well.

Saturdays schedule: Practice 3: 11am; Qualifying: 2:PM