Grapevine: Straw Poll: Saturday in Singapore

Lewis Hamilton summed up the shared disorientation of the F1 paddock first thing on Saturday morning.

"Good morning to everyone," he said, before correcting himself. "I mean good afternoon."

During his pre-practice press briefing, he added: "I could sleep forever, it's my favourite thing" when once again the topic of the Singapore Grand Prix existing in a timezone all of its own and the experience of getting up with the clock showing pm rather than am was raised!

But there were more important matters at hand in Singapore on Saturday - qualifying.

The 'morning' free practice session produced its fair share of incident and amusement. The former was served by Giancarlo Fisichella being launched to the gasps of the crowd off the Turn 10 kerbs - that's right, the ones that had been rendered safe with work overnight on Thursday - and thudding into the barrier.

The shunt effectively ruined Fisichella's whole day - when he finally did get out in the dying minutes of the first session of qualifying all he managed to achieve was to have a similar accident.

Admittedly, it was seemingly caused by the haste with which the team had repaired the car and it hadn't cost Force India a great deal. Asking Giancarlo after the session what might have been possible with a clean run in qualifying yielded the simple, downbeat response: "19th". Such is the lot of a Force India driver in 2008.

As for the amusement - it was Kimi Raikkonen who supplied it. To be precise, it was the marshals as they edged towards the Finn's stricken Ferrari up an escape road during free practice as if it were an unexploded bomb.

Of course, had they realised the extraordinary lengths the Singapore authorities had gone to make sure no-one brought any contraband into the paddock with metal detectors and searches at the paddock gate, they'd have known that he couldn't even have smuggled in some chewing gum.

But the big story of practice was Fernando Alonso. Fastest in free practice two and three - as good as uncharted territory this season. We all eagerly awaited what kind of a surprise he could pull off in qualifying and there was discernible disappointment when all he could manage was, quite literally, to pull off in Q2 with a fuel pump problem. His 'woe is me' gesture as he exited the car summed up his feelings. He was none too happy, and understandably so.

But his misfortune aided an old team-mate. Lewis Hamilton's first run in Q2 had gone awry, and a big lock-up on his second run left him teetering on the brink of missing Q3 for the second race on the trot. He ended up 10th - behind Q3 first-timer Kazuki Nakajima - so despite losing out on pole to the emerging streetmeister Felipe Massa, he had reason to be relieved.

So once again Massa shot down his critics with what was an absolutely stunning pole. Forget fuel loads - that was a mighty lap. Many in the press office are still struggling to come to terms with the Brazilian as a title contender, but with his good days - which are truly great - getting better and his bad days getting rarer, few are betting against a Massa special tomorrow.

As long as his Ferrari doesn't suffer the same fate as the FIAT driven by Times journalist Ed Gorman in today's celebrity race. It failed even to get off the grid...