Welcome to our LIVE coverage of the first free practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix. The local time is 17.45 and we're almost ready for action.

Thanks for joining us for that interesting first run out of the weekend under the Singapore floodlights. We're back at 14.30 UK time for FP2.

It's time for lunch for the drivers now at 7.40pm local time!

Vettel shows he means business here in the heat and humidity of the first practice session in Singapore, but the McLaren pair are in the mix.

So the top five from that session was Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Alonso and Maldonado, with the top two over 0.8s faster than any of their rivals.

The session ends with Vettel in the number one slot.

No-one can threaten Vettel at the front now and his soft tyre lap of 1:50.566 will not be beaten in this session now.

Vergne was giving it a real go there but he slipped in the final sector and could not move up from 17th.

An improvement for Button as he moves into third place, but he is still 0.893 behind Vettel.

Perez lost half a second there so he won't be pleased with himself.

Now Perez slides off but he quickly regains control to rejoin the charge over the final minutes.

Vettel is still out there and still pushing it on his final run. The champion remains at the top.

Grosjean had a bit of a moment a couple of minutes ago, slipping off track briefly, but no damage was done and he's back in action straight away.

As the session reaches its final stages it is suddenly getting frantic and there are 20 drivers sharing the track.

Rosberg is registering timed laps but is seven seconds down, so he must be trying out his race trim for Sunday.

Button was on a fast lap but slowed down in the latter sections and remains tenth.

Schumacher meanwhile is in 14th place, 2.42s slower than his young compatriot Vettel.

Alonso makes an improvement to move up to third and remind Vettel and Hamilton he is there, although he is a second off the pace.

Jenson Button by the way is tenth at the moment, nearly two seconds slower than McLaren teammate Hamilton.

Championship leader Alonso is down in seventh and is 1.445 slower than Vettel at this early stage but will aim to improve his pace before the session closes of course.

So Vettel is 0.049 faster than Hamilton, with Maldonado in third around one second down on the German. Webber remains in fourth.