Lewis Hamilton laid down an early marker that he will be the man to beat in the Singapore Grand Prix tomorrow when he set the fastest time in the second free practice session at the floodlit Marina Bay Street Circuit.

The Briton, who trails Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg by 22 points with six rounds remaining, clocked one minute 47.490 seconds to edge out the resurgent Ferrari of Fernando Alonso by just 0.133 seconds around the 23-turn, 5.065km track.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo crossed the line in a time of 1:47.790 to claim the third fastest time of the day, with the second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen edging out quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel to round out the top five.

Vettel, who has dominated this race for the last three years, had his track time compromised after an engine failure at the end of first free practice restricted the German to just eight minutes of action at the end of the second session.

Championship leader Rosberg was unable to set a quick time in the second session after Pastor Maldonado crashed his Lotus into the Turn 10 wall, forcing a brief halt to proceedings just as the German was about to embark on his flying lap.

He eventually finished down in 13th but will look back at his third place in the first 90-minute session of the day as a more reliable marker to his speed and form ahead of the weekend.

Hamilton was delighted to have set the tone for tomorrow's race. He said: "The car is handling very well. I'm looking forward to the race. At this stage of the season every point counts so it's important to have a good session tomorrow and keep the pressure on my rivals.

"I have a good record here and I'm aiming to keep it going."