Second pole position in a row for Alonso (Singapore Grand Prix qualifying)
Fernando Alonso will start from pole position for the second race in a row after pipping Sebastian Vettel in qualifying at Singapore.
The two McLarens will start from the second row of the grid with Lewis Hamilton ahead of Jenson Button.
Q1
The first qualifying session was interrupted when Felipe Massa suffered a car failure before he’d even set a lap. The red flags came out as the Ferrari was recovered.
That meant there was little prospect of anyone other than the three new cars being eliminated in Q1.
Sure enough, the session ended with Timo Glock fastest of those six cars, with Lucas di Grassi out-qualifying Jarno Trulli.
Christian Klien beat team mate Bruno Senna on his F1 return.
Q2
Vitaly Petrov’s qualifying ended when he crashed at turn five and broke his right-rear suspension.
He was running in the top ten at the time. But as he was unable to improve his time he was relegated into the drop zone.
The two Force India drivers were slowest in Q2, Vitantonio Liuzzi running across the chicane at one point.
Nico Hülkenberg was clearly frustrated after setting 12th fastest time. He already has a five-place penalty which will push him further down the grid tomorrow.
Jaime Alguersuari out-qualified team mate Sebastien Buemi to take 11th – and was just six-hundredths of a second away from reaching Q3.
Q3
Vettel looked on course for pole position as he set a dramatically quick time in the first sector of his lap. But he caught Michael Schumacher too soon and was only seventh after his first run.
Alonso headed the times after the first round of laps with a blistering run through the final sector of the lap. Hamilton was second behind him having lost time in the final sector when he caught his team mate.
Vettel found enough time on his second lap to split the pair of them with his last run, despite clipping a barrier in the second sector.
While Hamilton couldn’t improve with his last run Button moved up to fourth, relegating Mark Webber to fifth place and last of the five title contenders.
Full qualifying times
| Pos. | # | Driver | Car | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
| 1 | 8 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’46.541 | 1’45.809 | 1’45.390 |
| 2 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’46.960 | 1’45.561 | 1’45.457 |
| 3 | 2 | Lewis Hamilton | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’48.296 | 1’46.042 | 1’45.571 |
| 4 | 1 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’48.032 | 1’46.490 | 1’45.944 |
| 5 | 6 | Mark Webber | Red Bull-Renault | 1’47.088 | 1’45.908 | 1’45.977 |
| 6 | 9 | Rubens Barrichello | Williams-Cosworth | 1’48.183 | 1’47.019 | 1’46.236 |
| 7 | 4 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’48.554 | 1’46.783 | 1’46.443 |
| 8 | 11 | Robert Kubica | Renault | 1’47.657 | 1’46.949 | 1’46.593 |
| 9 | 3 | Michael Schumacher | Mercedes | 1’48.425 | 1’47.160 | 1’46.702 |
| 10 | 23 | Kamui Kobayashi | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’48.908 | 1’47.599 | 1’47.884 |
| 11 | 17 | Jaime Alguersuari | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’48.127 | 1’47.666 | |
| 12 | 12 | Vitaly Petrov | Renault | 1’48.906 | 1’48.165 | |
| 13 | 16 | Sebastien Buemi | Toro Rosso-Ferrari | 1’49.063 | 1’48.502 | |
| 14 | 22 | Nick Heidfeld | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’48.696 | 1’48.557 | |
| 15 | 14 | Adrian Sutil | Force India-Mercedes | 1’48.496 | 1’48.899 | |
| 16 | 15 | Vitantonio Liuzzi | Force India-Mercedes | 1’48.988 | 1’48.961 | |
| 17 | 10 | Nico Hülkenberg | Williams-Cosworth | 1’47.984 | 1’47.674 | |
| 18 | 24 | Timo Glock | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’50.721 | ||
| 19 | 19 | Heikki Kovalainen | Lotus-Cosworth | 1’50.915 | ||
| 20 | 25 | Lucas di Grassi | Virgin-Cosworth | 1’51.107 | ||
| 21 | 18 | Jarno Trulli | Lotus-Cosworth | 1’51.641 | ||
| 22 | 20 | Christian Klien | HRT-Cosworth | 1’52.946 | ||
| 23 | 21 | Bruno Senna | HRT-Cosworth | 1’54.174 | ||
| 24 | 7 | Felipe Massa | Ferrari |
2010 Singapore Grand Prix
- Technical review: Singapore Grand Prix
- Webber: Ferrari have momentum (Video)
- Final tracks suit McLaren better – Button
- No change in my approach – Hamilton
- Williams expect to keep up with Renault
- 2010 Singapore Grand Prix – the complete F1 Fanatic race weekend review
- Who was the best driver of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend? (Poll)
- Fourth win of 2010 is Alonso’s best yet (Ferrari race review)
- Poor pace and another Hamilton DNF hits title hopes (McLaren race review)
- Webber has champion’s luck but lacks Vettel’s pace (Red Bull race review)
Image © Singapore GP
BBT said on 25th September 2010, 19:14
Think I’ve got this correct, if, big IF, the race finished the same as qualifying positions the standings would be:
1. Web 197
2. Ham 197
3. Alo 191
4. Vet 181
5. But 177
But that won’t happen, thought it was interesting though.
When did the top five in Qualifying last finish the race in the same order?
statix said on 25th September 2010, 21:10
how many SCs will we see tomorrow? :)
with this 3 new team and lots of rookies i bet 2 or 3 :)
wasiF1 (@wasif1) said on 26th September 2010, 4:19
I hope none but yeah may be 3.
wasiF1 (@wasif1) said on 26th September 2010, 4:03
That may be small margin but that lap by Alonso was really great.What a qualifying session as the top 5 contender are all in the top 5. The person who will be under pressure will be Alonso as now he won’t have the luxury of having his team mates support which he had in the last couple of races. Ferrari are showing that they are back & back with a bang. I think someone between Alonso & Hamilton will win the race as Vettel will have a bad start starting on the dirty side of the track as
same goes with Button.
To be honest I expected better from Kubica, I think Barrichello & Roseberg are the only two person who can upset the top come the raceday tomorrow.
Younger Hamilton said on 26th September 2010, 7:46
First of all great job Lewis and Jenson for securing the 2nd row and getting just behind of ahead of a Red Bull on a track that suits Red Bull very well and well im not really complaining about Fernando being on Pole at least he’s ahead of Seb and there’s not Red Bull on Pole and starts on the clean side of the grid so its almost guarenteed that he will have a good clean start.Its Likely that Lewis will jump Seb into Turn 1 and possibly maybe follow Fernando in the slipstream through Raffles Boulvevard and overtake him into Turn 4 but Anything is Possible Anything can Happen.
Younger Hamilton said on 26th September 2010, 7:54
What Keith,Lewis lost time in the Final sector on his 1st run when he ended up being almost 2 tenths off Fernando imagine where he would of ended up if he didnt lost time to Jenson
PT said on 26th September 2010, 10:36
I didn’t pay attention to the qualifying telecast repeat showed on Star Sports, but did Bruno Senna’s spin affect his chance for a hot lap? Christian Klein is making mince meat of Senna.
BBQ2 said on 26th September 2010, 10:53
No, Bruno had enough time on his side after the spin to improve his times.
And, Klien is a faster driver ;-)
Marcello said on 26th September 2010, 10:45
What an astonishing first lap in Q3 by Alonso. At a track where red bull were meant to dominate. Q2 was very hectic after the Ferrari boys decided to revert to the old mapping for Alonso after Massas failures. As the master went out there was clearly a tense moment as the old mapping wasnt functioning properly. Alonso had to come back in to reset all, his banker lap put him 7th at the time. But straight after the reset in Q3 on his first run my god did he put a lap together under pressure! In the final run of Q3 no one could better it..not even he! Its shaping up to be another exciting race. Perhaps if he gets on the podium this time he will silence a few ppl who say he needs Massa help to succeed..as Massa is last!! Its very apparent that the red bulls and mclarens are fearing Alonso now, as more and more often in interviews they bring up the “Massa helping Alonso factor”. Button has already come out and said he will not be attempting to overtake his team-mate. What a gr8 “team player”. I’m expecting fireworks at the start with Alonso notoriously dodgy at starting, red bulls dreadful at starting, and mclarens awesome off the start. That would equate to Hamilton jumping both Vettel and Alonso off the start.
Marcello said on 26th September 2010, 10:48
BTW what a gr8 qualy from Kobayashi! In the top ten again. I really think that given a top car and couple more yrs he would be world champ material!!
Marcello said on 26th September 2010, 10:51
I expect at least 3 safety cars tomorrow
Kenneth said on 26th September 2010, 11:36
All Ham has to do is drive his race, he will jump Alo, in the pit stops….assuming all factors remain costant..Massa dont even think about it…..(he is plaaning to give Ham a headeache when they lap him)