Alonso grabs Singapore pole

Fernando Alonso secured pole position for Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix after keeping Sebastian Vettel at bay in qualifying.

Ferrari driver edges out Vettel in battle for top spot on the grid

Fernando Alonso secured pole position for Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix after keeping the hard-charging Sebastian Vettel at bay in qualifying. The Ferrari driver, who is firmly in the title race after his win at Monza last time out, set a stunning lap time of 1 minute 45.390 under the lights at the Marina Bay circuit. Vettel, who was the favourite for pole after dominating practice during the weekend, was less than a tenth back in second place while Lewis Hamilton completed the top three. Jenson Button will start behind his McLaren team-mate in fourth place while championship leader Mark Webber ensured that the five title challengers occupied the first five spots on the gird. In the all-important final part of the session, Alonso stormed into provisional pole after the first round of flying laps as Vettel was well off the pace after making an error.

Charge

As expected, Vettel then mounted a frantic charge for top spot and seemed to be on course as he set a blistering first sector time. However, his pace dropped off throughout the rest of the lap and he crossed the line 0.067 seconds behind Alonso's mark, with the Spaniard not having to improve his time in order to keep pole. Hamilton was a little under two tenths adrift of Alonso while Button and Webber were over half a second behind. Rubens Barrichello produced a fine performance to qualify sixth in his Williams and was followed by Nico Roseberg, Robert Kubica, Michael Schumacher and Kamui Kobayashi. Earlier in the qualifying, the drivers all headed out on slick tyres at the start of the first part of qualifying despite being faced with a track that stubbornly refused to dry out following afternoon rain.

Stop

Felipe Massa's session was brought to an end before he had even posted a time as his Ferrari stopped out on track, causing a brief red flag period. His team-mate Alonso set the quickest time in Q1 before also experiencing technical problems in the second part of qualifying, although he overcame the gremlins to comfortably progress to the top-10 shootout Shortly afterwards, Vettel surged to the top of the timesheets with the fastest lap of the weekend to that point - a 1:45.561 - to reaffirm the pace he had shown in practice. Kobayashi gave Sauber a boost by scraping into Q3 while Mercedes benefitted from an improved performance with both Rosberg and Schumacher making it into the top 10. Times:
01. Alonso Ferrari 1:45.390
02. Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1:45.457
03. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1:45.571
04. Button McLaren-Mercedes 1:45.944
05. Webber Red Bull-Renault 1:45.977
06. Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1:46.236
07. Rosberg Mercedes 1:46.443
08. Kubica Renault 1:46.593
09. Schumacher Mercedes 1:46.702
10. Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1:47.884
11. Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:47.666
12. Hulkenberg Williams-Cosworth 1:47.674
13. Petrov Renault 1:48.165
14. Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1:48.502
15. Heidfeld Sauber-Ferrari 1:48.557
16. Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1:48.899
17. Liuzzi Force India-Mercedes 1:48.961
18. Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1:50.721
19. Kovalainen Lotus-Cosworth 1:50.915
20. di Grassi Virgin-Cosworth 1:51.107
21. Trulli Lotus-Cosworth 1:51.641
22. Klien HRT-Cosworth 1:52.946
23. Senna HRT-Cosworth 1:54.174
24. Massa Ferrari