Felipe Massa will start Formula One’s first ever night race from pole position after setting a comfortable margin ahead of his competitors. The Brazilian recorded a time around the floodlit street track at Marina Bay with one minute, 44.801 seconds, more than half a second faster than championship rival Lewis Hamilton, who will start the Singapore Grand Prix in second.
The Ferrari driver already held provisional pole after his first run in Q3, but Massa briefly lost the position to his title rival in the McLaren in the closing seconds. However even as Lewis crossed the start/finish line, the Brazilian was already on course to beat his lap, setting purple sectors in all three parts of the street circuit and recording that special qualifying lap.
His Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen could only settle for third, though the Finn had a brief scare during Q1. Raikkonen would have been out of the running in the first knockout stages of qualifying as he was pushed down the order by quicker cars. He managed to get through into Q2 and finally in Q3 by setting competitive times in the red car, though he is still slower than his Scuderia team-mate Massa.
BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica will start in fourth ahead of Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren, with Nick Heidfeld completed the top six in the second BMW.
Italian Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel qualified his Toro Rosso in an impressive seventh with Toyota’s Timo Glock joining him on
Toro Rosso’s Sebastian Vettel followed up his Monza win with a competitive seventh place, with Toyota’s Timo Glock joining him on row four.
Williams showed resurgent form to get both cars into Q3 for the first time all season. Nico Rosberg will start ninth, with team-mate Kazuki Nakajima in his career best with tenth.
As for the double world champion Fernando Alonso, the Spaniard was deeply frustrated to qualify in only 15th after setting the pace in the previous practice session. Alonso would have been a contender in the battle for pole position, only for a fuel feed problem that hinders his performance during Q2.
So the very first night race in Formula One’s history at an exciting street circuit in downtown Singapore. Who will win? Can Massa reduce the points gap to Hamilton with victory? Will the McLaren star keep his composure as the championship reaches its conclusion or will we see a new winner joining the likes of Kubica, Kovalainen and Vettel on the top step of the podium?
Qualifying times from Singapore:
1. Massa Ferrari 1:44.801
2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:45.465
3. Raikkonen Ferrari 1:45.617
4. Kubica BMW Sauber 1:45.779
5. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes 1:45.873
6. Heidfeld BMW Sauber 1:45.964
7. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:46.244
8. Glock Toyota 1:46.328
9. Rosberg Williams-Toyota 1:46.611
10. Nakajima Williams-Toyota 1:47.547
11. Trulli Toyota 1:45.038
12. Button Honda 1:45.133
13. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:45.212
14. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault 1:45.298
15. Alonso Renault 1:44.971
16. Piquet Renault 1:46.037
17. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:46.389
18. Barrichello Honda 1:46.583
19. Sutil Force India-Ferrari 1:47.
20. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari No time
I’m a bit of a fan of this track. When they showed the over head helicopter view with the big long road over head and all the cars with the city lights on it was quite impressive and beautiful city/track. The pitch was nice and clean there wasn’t as much advertising with lots of the wall spare of advertising. Seeing the cars at night I thought was kewl made a nice change.
Hamilton struggled on this one a bit. He left the first Q1 very late so only got one lap in then struggled on the later qualifying sessions. What is the boy up to. And wtf is Raiki doing, if I remember correctly he is currently the highest paid F1 driver?