Sebastian Vettel continued to dominate proceedings at the Buddh International Circuit as the Reigning Double World Champion, in hot pursuit of a third title, set a stonking 1:25.842 second lap. The German was in cruise control throughout the hour long session as McLaren's Jenson Button was his closest competitor, the Briton being the meat in a Red Bull sandwich. Button finished in 2nd place with a strong 1:26.034 lap while Mark Webber confirmed Red Bulls pace as he drove a personal best lap of 1:26.108s.

Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen rounded off the top 5, with Bruno Senna in a strong 6th place for Williams, with Vettel's championship rival Fernando Alonso in his Scarlet Ferrari concentrating on a different program, finishing 7th fastest 0.679 s off Vettel's personal best.

Local hope Narain Karthikeyan had a disappointing start to the Indian Grand Prix with his HRT car suffering a hydraulic failure during Friday's second Free Practice session, restricting the Indian's running to just 20 laps in the second session.

HRT, who are yet to score a point in this year's championship, have been one of the regular backmarkers once again this season as the team struggles to financially match-up with the big boys in Formula 1. Karthikeyan's home race is an important one for the team with the local lad bringing on his share of sponsors, and it is imperative that he has a good outing.

Sebastian Vettel continued to be the man to beat in India, as he followed up his incredible performance at the Buddh International Circuilt last season where he picked up the triple crown, with twin timesheet topping performances in FP1 and FP2 on Friday. Having set a time of 1:27.619 to top the charts in the morning, Vettel set the pace again in FP2, posting an excellent 1:26.221 second lap on the soft tyres in the afternoon. Red Bull made it a perfect day for them with Mark Webber almost matching the double world champion for pace, setting an excellent 1:26.339 second lap himself. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who is 6 points behind Vettel in the race for the drivers' championship, was third quickest, but a massive 0.599 seconds behind.

Nico Rosberg and Kimi Raikkonen were fourth and fifth quickest, but neither driver managed to break into the 1:26s. Rosberg shared though that his position on the timesheets may not necessarily be realistic of his potential qualifying pace. The McLaren duo of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button were 6th and 7th, with virtually nothing separating the duo in terms of pace. Nico Hulkenberg gave the home fans something to cheer by setting the eighth fastest time in the Force India.

Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel, chasing his fourth straight win of the season, began his defence of the Indian Grand Prix in perfect fashion, setting a 1:27.619 lap to top the timesheets in the morning's Free Practice session. Vettel was over three-tenths of a second quicker than Jenson Button, who found some much needed form on his final lap to be the only other driver to break 1:28s. Fernando Alonso sent out a warning to all those who believe his title challenge is fading by being third quickest with a time of 1:28.044. In fact, there was just one hundredths of a second separating the Ferrari driver and Vettel before the Red Bull man posted one final quick lap to wrap up his morning's work.

Lewis Hamilton, who was quickest in Friday free practice 1 here last season - almost a full second faster than today's best time - was also very much in the picture today, just 0.002 seconds off Alonso's pace. Red Bull's Mark Webber rounded off the top 5.

Caterham F1 Team has confirmed that it will be running its current Reserve and Test Drivers at the forthcoming Young Driver Test in Abu Dhabi, taking place at the Yas Marina Circuit from 6th – 8th November. 27 year old Reserve Driver van der Garde will be in the car for days one and two of the test with 21 year old Test Driver Rossi taking over for day three.

Cyril Abiteboul, Caterham F1 Team CEO: "We are delighted to be running both Giedo, our Reserve Driver, and Alexander, our Test Driver, at the Abu Dhabi Young Driver Test in November. With all the drivers we work with we want to make sure they can see that we can help guide them along a clear path to the top of the motorsport industry. On top of the FP1 sessions both drivers have already run for us, giving both Giedo and Alexander the chance to also test with us in Abu Dhabi is a good example of our ongoing commitment to helping develop talented drivers achieve their long-term goals.

Red Bull Racing has confirmed today that its line-up for the Young Driver Test at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina circuit from 6-8 November will be Antonio Felix da Costa and Robin Frijns.

Portuguese driver Felix da Costa is a member of the Red Bull Junior team and recently finished third in the GP3 Championship. He also competed in six of the nine rounds of the 2012 Formula Renault 3.5 series, taking four wins and finishing fourth-place overall. The 21-year-old recently drove a Red Bull Racing RB7 at a Show Car event in Seoul, Korea.