Sebastian Vettel was unstoppable under the floodlights as the Formula One championship leader dominated Friday practice for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix while title rival Fernando Alonso was seventh.

After placing third in the midday session, Vettel posted 1 minute 41.751 seconds on the 5.554km Yas Marina course in his Red Bull.

The German leapfrogged the McLarens who had topped the first session time sheets, leaving only second for the 2011 race winner Lewis Hamilton (1:41.919) and third for Jenson Button (1:42.412).

Alonso came seventh in 1:42.587 to go with fourth earlier in the day, as Mark Webber in the second Red Bull and the Lotus duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean were also faster than the Ferrari driver.

“Today was an important day,” Vettel said, adding that Hamilton will most likely be his biggest challenger for the pole position in qualifying on Saturday.

But Vettel also felt he had room for improvement for Saturday and Sunday’s day-to-night race.

Hamilton said: “We seemed quite good in P1, P2 was a bit of a struggle for me … If we get pole it would be fantastic. (But) Sebastian has got a faster car … If we get ahead it would be a huge bonus for us.”

Vettel has turned a 39-point deficit on Alonso into a 13-point lead by winning the past four races, in Singapore, Japan, South Korea and India.

Hamilton, Raikkonen and Webber have only a mathematical title chance with three races left.

Vettel has led every lap of the past three races as he eyes a third straight world title.

He won the first two editions of the Abu Dhabi race in 2009 and 2010, the latter the season-ender.

Qualifying is scheduled for Saturday, and, given the small gap at the top, could be more exciting than in the previous races where Red Bull took the first row on the grid.

The practice sessions give no full indication of the teams’ strength as all outfits are testing set-ups on different fuel loads for qualifying and Sunday’s race.