Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel held off his championship-leading team-mate Mark Webber to take practice honours yesterday for this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

The 23-year-old German, who beat Webber in morning practice by just four one-hundredths of a second, recorded his benchmark time of 1:31.465 with 23 minutes remaining in the afternoon session.

Webber, who has a 21-point advantage over the fourth-placed Vettel in the championship standings with four races remaining, was again second, 0.395secs behind his team-mate.

“The pace looked all right,” said Vettel.

“We had a trouble-free Friday, so that’s the most important (thing), especially on a track like this when you need to get the feeling and get into a rhythm with all those corners all following each other.

“It was important to not have any trouble, and the car was reliable today, so I have a good feeling.”

Poland’s Robert Kubica was third for Renault, while Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, winner of the last two races in Italy and Singapore, was fourth.

Aside from Webber, only Kubica and Alonso could lap within a second of Vettel’s top time, the Red Bull duo again showing the prowess of the nimble RB6 chassis on the fast and flowing Suzuka layout.

Alonso’s team-mate Felipe Massa was fifth, more than a second off the front-running pace, while reigning world champion Jenson Button was sixth for McLaren.