Qualifying Report
Singapore GP
After a strong final practice session it was Lewis Hamilton who stamped his authority on the Qualifying session for the Singapore Grand Prix. Hamilton was the only driver to get down into the 1m 47s bracket under the floodlights and he did it in style. Sebastian Vettel was second fastest for Red Bull with team mate Mark Webber ably supporting him with third best time. Nico Rosberg bounced back to form with a fine third place splitting the Red Bull cars. Rubens Barrichello was fifth fastest but blotted his copybook late in the session when he brushed a tyre barrier with the rear wheel of his Brawn, the car the flicked left and damaged the front end suspension, front wing and dislodging a front wheel. The shunt effectively brought the session to an end as there was insufficient time remaining for anyone else to complete another timed lap. To add to Barrichello's woes he had a gearbox change ahead of the session and will drop five grid places as a result. Fernando Alonso was sixth fastest for for a Renault Team desperate to forget the trauma of the last week and Timo Glock was seventh for Toyota. The BMW Saubers of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica ended the final shoot out eighth and ninth with Heikki Kovalainen rounding out the top ten. Notably missing from the final soot out were Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen. Button now faces the prospect of again having to battle his team mate from behind as even with his five place penalty he will be two places ahead of the championship leader on the grid. It was another dismal performance from Giancarlo Fisichella who was eighteenth fastest in the Ferrari and looking no better than the much criticised Luca Badoer.
