Greater Noida, Oct 25 (IANS): Defending World Champion Sebastian Vettel looks on course for another victory at the Formula One Indian Grand Prix as he topped the timesheets of both the practice sessions here Friday.

The Red Bull driver, who clocked one minute and 26.683 seconds in the morning session, blazed the track with a 1:25.722 lap in the second practice session at the Buddh International Circuit (BIC).

This is the first time this weekend that any driver has broken the one minute 26 second barrier.

The three-time World Champion was followed in both the practice sessions by teammate Mark Webber, who was only 0.289 seconds behind.

Romain Grosjean in his Lotus sprung a surprise with a 1.26.011 lap, coming third while Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton was fourth clocking 1.26.388.

The two Ferraris of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa were fifth and seventh fastest, respectively, with the second Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg slotting in between them.

Force India's Paul di Resta returned to the circuit after being substituted by James Calado in the first practice session and finished 15th (1:27.608).

Teammate Adrian Sutil was in 12th place with a time of 1:27.375.

During the afternoon practice, an incident was avoided when Pastor Maldonado's William's front right wheel nut flew out and the tyre suffered a puncture at Turn 7. The Venezuelan had to stop his car in front of the pits to avoid an incident.

This could spell trouble for the English team after they were fined 60,000 euros when a tyre flew off during practice, two weeks ago at the Japanese Grand Prix.