The complete 2010 Singapore GP review

PRACTICE

Practice 1 - Friday PM

The only thing the teams could really learn in the opening session was that Marina Bay takes a long time to dry in twilight, for although the rain had stopped over an hour before practice commenced, it was only in the final 15 minutes that the track was really ready for slicks.

Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi and Virgin's Timo Glock were particularly entertaining - and quick - on the damp track, but when the surface finally dried the timing screen rapidly turned itself inside out as the order changed with every lap completed on the ever-faster circuit.

In the closing seconds it looked like this might be the first time that Michael Schumacher would top a session in his comeback, but Mark Webber slipped through with a slightly quicker time to deny the seven-time champion.

Adrian Sutil, Sebastian Vettel, Jaime Alguersuari and Jenson Button completed the top six, all having been fastest for a few moments in the frantic final couple of minutes.

A slippery street track at sunset wasn't the easiest way to make a Formula 1 debut or comeback, but Sauber's returnee Nick Heidfeld and Virgin's newcomer Jerome d'Ambrosio were both matching their team-mates by the end.

Christian Klien - called up by Hispania at short notice after a bout of food poisoning for Sakon Yamamoto - was a long way off Bruno Senna's pace though, and admitted it was tough to get up to speed initially. Klien was 23rd, ahead of only Lotus' Friday driver Fairuz Fauzy.

Practice 2 - Friday PM

Though a few puddles still lingered off-line, the track was basically dry for practice two, and that gave Red Bull the chance to show the sort of pace that had rivals fearing it would dominate.

Vettel was a second clear of the rest of the pack for a long time, and in the end only his team-mate Webber could get within 0.6s of him.

Fernando Alonso looked like he might be able to match the Red Bulls, though. He was on Vettel's pace through the first two sectors, only to slide down an escape road in the third. He reversed back onto the track, but then the car stalled as he tried to engage first gear, with Ferrari blaming an 'experimental gearbox component'.

That left Alonso on the sidelines for the last 20 minutes, although his time still held up for fourth, between the two McLarens.

Also short of mileage were Sutil, who smashed his Force India's suspension with a dramatic flight on the heavily-criticised Turn 10 chicane kerbs, and Robert Kubica, whose Renault had hydraulic problems.

Saturday Practice

On a track still damp from earlier showers, no-one was in a particular hurry to rush out onto the circuit for the final practice session.

When they finally did, there were few surprises. Sebastian Vettel established himself at the top of the order and then improved his time twice, settling on a 1m48.028s. It was quick, but the question of whether it was beatable would remain unanswered as a result of Bruno Senna stopping on the track late in the session.

The yellow flags caused by the Brazilian's problem meant that no-one else was able to improve their times, forcing several drivers, including Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton, to abort what looked like being quick laps.

As it was, the German was left to occupy the top of the timing screens with a margin of 0.622s over Ferrari's Fernando Alonos - an impressive, if overly flattering gap.

QUALIFYING

1. Fernando Alonso, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 11-3

Apart from a scare related to the engine mapping in Q2, it was a faultless day for Alonso, who put on a superb early lap in Q3 to secure his second pole in a row. With the race expected to be dry, the result was crucial on a track where overtaking is very hard. It was no surprise that Alonso was delighted.

2. Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 8-6

With Red Bull having dominated all practice sessions, Vettel faced qualifying as the favourite for pole. So even the German himself had to admit that he should have grabbed the top spot. Nonetheless, Vettel was confident he could still beat Alonso in the race.

3. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 9-5

After claiming Red Bull would be hard to beat on Friday, the Briton's mood changed for Saturday, and he felt he could have ended up with pole position. Despite finishing down in third, Hamilton was still happy and hopeful his race pace - and his start - would boost him into the top two places.

4. Jenson Button, McLaren
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-9

Button had some problems to get his tyres working perfectly during his Q3 runs, meaning he struggled in the first sector of the track. As usual, he was confident his race pace, and also his start, would help him gain vital places on Sunday.

5. Mark Webber, Red Bull
Team-mate qualifying battle 6-8

Having finished behind all his championship rivals on a track where overtaking is very hard, it was no surprise that Webber was disappointed with his performance. The Australian reckoned he had the pace to be on the front row, but in the end was unable to put all his sectors together.

6. Rubens Barrichello, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 10-5

The Brazilian veteran was superb on qualifying day, with the big update introduced by Williams proving a step forward in performance. Barrichello believed he had matched the expectations set on the upgrade and, having finished less than three tenths off Webber, he was probably right.

7. Nico Rosberg, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 12-2

Rosberg admitted he was hoping for a better result from qualifying, especially after a promising performance in the morning's practice session. As it was, however, the Mercedes driver had problems getting his tyres working perfectly, and felt a lack of grip at the rear end.

8. Robert Kubica, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 13-1

Although much was expected from Renault following Kubica's showing Monaco, the Pole had to admit it was time to be realistic, as the French squad had not brought any significant updates for the race. In the end, he claimed to have extracted the maximum from the car to secure eighth.

9. Michael Schumacher, Mercedes
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-12

Schumacher enjoyed driving at night for the first time in a Formula 1 car, and the seven-time champion was reasonably happy with his position after returning to the top ten for the first time since the British GP. The bad news was that he was again behind Rosberg.

10. Kamui Kobayashi, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-7

Kobayashi was delighted, with good reason, after securing a place in the top ten once again - for the fourth time this season. The Japanese driver was thankful to his team after turning around his car following a series of difficult practice sessions.

11. Jaime Alguersuari, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 4-10

Another driver who was very happy with his performance, the Spaniard came within a whisker of making it into the top ten shootout for the first time. His strong showing was especially significant after finishing a second ahead of team-mate Buemi.

12. Nico Hulkenberg, Williams
Team-mate qualifying battle 5-9

Inexplicable was how Hulkenberg described his failure to end up in a better position given Williams's strong form in Singapore. The German lost his first run when slowed down by Sutil and was then hit by a yellow flag period. He was still confident of making it to Q3, but the balance of his car changed and he did not have the pace.

13. Vitaly Petrov, Renault
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-13

Petrov did exactly what he didn't need to do: crash out during qualifying. It was the second time in three races following his incident at Spa. 13th was still a decent result, but the Russian was still disappointed with his error.

14. Sebastien Buemi, Toro Rosso
Team-mate qualifying battle 10-4

The Swiss driver did not enjoy a great day. Buemi was unable to complete a clear lap because of traffic and because of the yellow flags. On top of that, he complained of a serious lack of grip and was at a loss to explain the deficit to his team-mate.

15. Nick Heidfeld, Sauber
Team-mate qualifying battle 0-1

Having been very close to Kobayashi's pace during practice, more was expected from Heidfeld, the German having to concede it was perhaps unrealistic to hope for more. In any case, he will have to get up to speed quickly if Sauber's decision to replace de la Rosa is to be somewhat justified.

16. Adrian Sutil, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 12-2

One of the worst performances of the season for the Force India team, which struggled with its tyres during the session. Sutil claimed the harder compound actually had more grip than the softer one, so it was no surprise that he could not get close to the top ten.

17. Vitantonio Liuzzi, Force India
Team-mate qualifying battle 2-12

Liuzzi reckons he had the pace to be competitive in Q1, but then struggled in Q2, the Italian complaining of issues with his front brakes. He was mystified by those and was left hoping for something strange to happen in the race to get closer to the points.

18. Timo Glock, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 13-1

Although he conceded the car was not easy to drive, Glock was very happy with his and the team's performance after securing "pole position" ahead of Lotus and HRT. The Virgin driver felt he had extracted every drop of performance from the car

19. Heikki Kovalainen, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-7

The Finn had to be content with staying close to Glock after a difficult day for Lotus. Kovalainen said his best chance with a new set of tyres was ruined by traffic, but was still satisfied with "second place" on the new teams' grid.

20. Lucas di Grassi, Virgin
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-13

Despite being forced to sit out first practice to make way for D'Ambrosio, the Brazilian felt Singapore's qualifying had been his best of the season so far. Di Grassi was happy to be able to split the Lotus duo, but was still four tenths of Glock's pace.

21. Jarno Trulli, Lotus
Team-mate qualifying battle 7-7

After a promising practice, Trulli was disappointed with his qualifying performance, the Italian claiming that he could not find any grip with the softer tyres. He decided to use the Primes to set his best time, and said he has extracted the maximum from his package.

22.Christian Klien, HRT
Team-mate qualifying battle 1-0

Nothing more could have been asked from the Austrian, in his first competitive outing in F1 since the 2006 season, and in a car he had only driven in two practice sessions before the weekend. Klien was justifiably delighted with his performance, having overshadowed team-mate Senna.

23. Bruno Senna, HRT
Team-mate qualifying battle 9-5

It's never good news when your team-mate, on his first qualifying session in four years, outpaces you by 1.3 seconds, so Senna had no reasons to be happy on Saturday. The HRT driver felt his car was very hard to drive, as proved by a spin during Q1, but even so the gap must have been worrying.

24. Felipe Massa, Ferrari
Team-mate qualifying battle 3-11

On a track that he enjoys, Massa has not been very lucky, and his fate was again sealed by a gearbox problem during the first qualifying segment. The Brazilian stopped before even managing to set a time, and so the bottom of the grid beckoned for him.

QUALIFYING RESULTS

Pos  Driver         Team                   Q1        Q2         Q3
 1.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:46.541  1:45.809   1:45.390
 2.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:46.960  1:45.561   1:45.457
 3.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:48.296  1:46.042   1:45.571
 4.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:48.032  1:46.490   1:45.944
 5.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:47.088  1:45.908   1:45.977
 6.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:48.183  1:47.019   1:46.236
 7.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:48.554  1:46.783   1:46.443
 8.  Kubica         Renault                1:47.657  1:46.949   1:46.593
 9.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:48.425  1:47.160   1:46.702
10.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:48.908  1:47.599   1:47.884
11.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:48.127  1:47.666
12.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:47.984  1:47.674
13.  Petrov         Renault                1:48.906  1:48.165
14.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:49.063  1:48.502
15.  Heidfeld       Sauber-Ferrari         1:48.696  1:48.557
16.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:48.496  1:48.899
17.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:48.988  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

THE RACE

There were a few flashes of deja vu during this year's Singapore Grand Prix, which was extremely good news if you happened to be Fernando Alonso, and extremely bad news if you were Lewis Hamilton.

Two weeks after Alonso got his championship campaign back on track with a victory in Ferrari's backyard at Monza, the Spaniard repeated the trick around the streets of Singapore. Meanwhile Hamilton, keen to limit the damage to his own title hopes caused by a first-lap accident in Italy, came to Singapore looking to make an impact - and instead found himself once again walking back to the pits before the race was over.

Worse for him, all four of his rivals amassed a solid haul of points. Alonso's victory moved him up to second in the standings, while third for Mark Webber was enough to keep the Red Bull driver in the championship lead. Sebastian Vettel moved within one point of Hamilton by taking second, and Jenson Button sits right behind them after finishing fourth.

All five drivers remain firmly in contention, and with four races remaining - three, if Korea doesn't happen - no-one can afford any more mistakes.

The Marina Bay layout is not exactly known as the world capital of overtaking, which meant that the race was always going to be fought out more on the pitwall than in the trenches. And so it proved when Mark Webber, looking to overcome a relatively disappointing qualifying result of fifth, opted to take advantage of a lap three safety car to ditch his softer tyres in favour of the harder compound.

It meant that the Australian would be fed back into the field in 11th, forcing him to do some passing in order to limit the extent to which the other frontrunners could pull away, but if it panned out in his favour then there was the potential for a podium finish.

While Webber was working his way back through the midfield, there was not an awful lot going on up at the front. The field made it through the first corner in one piece, and the leaders set off in the order in which they'd qualified, with Alonso leading Vettel and the McLarens of Hamilton and Button.

As the lead four skated off during the opening phase of the race, it initially seemed that Red Bull's gamble might have backfired. Shortly after Webber had rejoined the field he'd been just over 10s in arrears; by lap 17, that had blown out to almost 30s.

Vettel remained resolutely clamped to the rear of Alonso's car, but wasn't able to get close enough to try anything. The German had hinted that he had more pace to draw upon if he needed it, which indicated that he might try to stay out a lap or two later than the Ferrari in the hope of pinching the lead. Instead, he followed the Spaniard into the pits, and briefly scared himself by almost stalling when the lollipop was rasied.

It was more of the same during the final stint, although Vettel did finally manage to get close enough to cause Alonso some concern during the last two laps. The battle was complicated by the pair having to thread their way through traffic, but the fact that yellow flags at the final corner immunised Alonso against any attack going onto the main straight helped to work in his favour, and he went to on claim the win.

Meanwhile, it had been clear from early on that the McLarens weren't able to live with the lead duo in terms of race pace, and their concern switched instead to Webber, with Hamilton being requested to find an extra 0.3s - quite a challenge on fading tyres.

The Australian had made solid progress through the midfield and, when Hamilton and Button made their stops, the sight of a Red Bull rear wing up ahead of them when they rejoined confirmed that their fears had been well-founded.

An appearance by the safety car not long afterward gave McLaren a chance to recify things, and Hamilton was immediately on the attack following the restart.

When Webber became momentarily bogged down behind a lapped Virgin, Hamilton seized the moment and shot up alongside the Red Bull. He got most of the way ahead, but then attempted to turn into a left-hander with little thought for where Webber was supposed to go, and the inevitably thud that followed ended with Hamilton bouncing into retirement.

Webber was able to continue, which was something of a miracle given that it later transpired that he completed the race with his tyre nearly falling off the rim. But not only did his car kept going, but it was quick enough to remain clear of Button, and the pair crossed the line third and fourth.

Nico Rosberg and Rubens Barrichello both had relatively sedate drives to fifth and sixth, but Robert Kubica had to work considerably harder for his seventh place. The Pole had been running in sixth before he picked up a puncture to his right-rear, which forced him to make an extra stop and dropped him to 13th.

Down but not out, the Renault driver went into full recovery mode and regained almost all of the lost places over the final 15 laps in a performance that he justifiably described as "the most exciting part of the race."

Eighth place for Felipe Massa was an excellent outcome from a fairly dire situation, with the Brazilian starting from the back of the grid following a gearbox problem in qualifying.

He stopped on the second lap to get rid of his softs and steadily worked his way up to tenth, which became eighth when both Adrian Sutil and Nico Hulkenberg were penalised after the race.

On-track skirmishes accounted for several drivers, starting with Tonio Liuzzi, who prompted the first safety car intervention when damage sustained in contact with Nick Heidfeld at the start brought his Force India to a halt a lap later.

A clash between Michael Schumacher and Kamui Kobayashi was followed by Kobayashi belting the wall a short time later, and it became a two-car wreck when Bruno Senna rounded the corner and buried his HRT into the remains of the Sauber.

Schumacher would later have a hand in the demise of the other Sauber when contact between he and Nick Heldfeld resulted in the end of the latter's race. "In my view, Michael braked too hard and knocked me out of the race," he said.

For drama though, the prize went to Heikki Kovalainen, whose Lotus began to spout flames following a fairly innocuous-looking bump with Sebastien Buemi.

A few small flickers at the rear of the car quickly erupted into something considerably more spectacular, and by the time the Finn had come to a stop on the main straight, the entire rear of the car was in flames. Cool to the end, Kovalainen asked for an extinguisher from the pitwall and doused the flames himself.

RACE RESULTS

The Singapore Grand Prix
Singapore, Singapore;
61 laps; 309.087km;
Weather: Dry.

Classified:

Pos  Driver        Team                       Time

 1.  Alonso        Ferrari                    1h57:53.579
 2.  Vettel        Red Bull-Renault           +     0.293
 3.  Webber        Red Bull-Renault           +    29.141
 4.  Button        McLaren-Mercedes           +    30.384
 5.  Rosberg       Mercedes                   +    49.394
 6.  Barrichello   Williams-Cosworth          +    56.101
 7.  Kubica        Renault                    +  1:26.559
 8.  Massa         Ferrari                    +  1:53.297
 9.  Sutil         Force India-Mercedes       +  2:12.416 *
10.  Hulkenberg    Williams-Cosworth          +  2:12.791 *
11.  Petrov        Renault                    +     1 lap
12.  Alguersuari   Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
13.  Schumacher    Mercedes                   +     1 lap
14.  Buemi         Toro Rosso-Ferrari         +     1 lap
15.  Di Grassi     Virgin-Cosworth            +    2 laps
16.  Kovalainen    Lotus-Cosworth             +    3 laps

* 20-second time penalty

Fastest lap: Alonso, 1:47.976

Not classified/retirements:

Driver        Team                         On lap
Glock         Virgin-Cosworth              51
Heidfeld      Sauber-Ferrari               35
Hamilton      McLaren-Mercedes             34
Klien         HRT-Cosworth                 30
Kobayashi     Sauber-Ferrari               29
Senna         HRT-Cosworth                 28
Trulli        Lotus-Cosworth               26
Liuzzi        Force India-Mercedes         1


World Championship standings, round 15:                

Drivers:                    Constructors:             
 1.  Webber       202        1.  Red Bull-Renault          383
 2.  Alonso       191        2.  McLaren-Mercedes          359
 3.  Hamilton     182        3.  Ferrari                   319
 4.  Vettel       181        4.  Mercedes                  168
 5.  Button       177        5.  Renault                   133
 6.  Massa        128        6.  Force India-Mercedes       60
 7.  Rosberg      122        7.  Williams-Cosworth          56
 8.  Kubica       114        8.  Sauber-Ferrari             27
 9.  Sutil         47        9.  Toro Rosso-Ferrari         10
10.  Schumacher    46       
11.  Barrichello   39       
12.  Kobayashi     21       
13.  Petrov        19       
14.  Hulkenberg    17  
15.  Liuzzi        13       
16.  Buemi          7       
17.  De la Rosa     6       
18.  Alguersuari    3       
       
All timing unofficial

Lap-by-lap as it happened on AUTOSPORT Live

TEAM BY TEAM

McLaren

Decent weekend for the team in terms of pace, with Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button both featuring towards the top of the order on Friday and backing it up by qualifying third and fourth respectively on Saturday.

Both drivers felt that they could have been on the front row, but nevertheless took heart from the fact that the Red Bulls appeared to be less dominant than they'd feared.

The pair made decent starts but faded towards the end of their stint on the softer tyres and were leapfrogged by Mark Webber. Hamilton's efforts to redress the situation ended with contact that put him out of the race, while Button finished solid fourth.

Mercedes

Encouraged by getting both cars into Q3, although Nico Rosberg felt that he could have qualified higher than seventh, two spots ahead of team-mate Michael Schumacher.

Rosberg had a strong race to finish fifth, but Schumacher's chances were compromised when a gamble to pit during the first safety car backfired and left him exposed to the cars that chose to make their stops later. His situation wasn't helped by the fact that he managed to get into altercations with both Saubers at different points in the race.

Red Bull

Talk that Singapore would mark a return to a more Red Bull-friendly type of circuit appeared to be supported when Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber went 1-2 on Friday, but come Saturday, neither driver managed to get the best out of their car and found themselves starting from second and fifth respectively.

Both made good starts in the race, but while Vettel was never far from the back of leader Fernando Alonso, nor was he ever close enough to try a move. He survived a scare when he nearly stalled while leaving the pits, but otherwise was content to finish second and continue collecting points.

Webber gambled on an early stop, coming in during the safety car period on lap three, and it paid off when he later leapfrogged both McLarens to move up to third. Was lucky not to suffer terminal damage in the accident that eliminated Hamilton.

Ferrari

Losing time on Friday to a problem with an "experimental part in the gearbox" made little difference to Fernando Alonso on Saturday; the Spaniard beating Sebastian Vettel to pole. Alonso still went into the race with less high-fuel practice laps under his belt than he'd have liked, but it turned out to be enough to keep Vettel at bay for the duration of the race and make the Spaniard the first two-time winner in Singapore.

Massa's weekend was compromised by a gearbox failure in the opening phase of qualifying that left him starting from the rear of the grid. With nothing to lose the Brazilian opted for an ultra-aggressive strategy, stopping on lap two, and worked his way back through the field to finally cross the line in 10th, which became ninth after Adrian Sutil was handed a post-race penalty.

Williams

Experimented with some new bits on Friday, with both drivers getting revised front wings and Rubens Barrichello trying out an updated diffuser. Barrichello subsequently praised the updates after qualifying sixth, although Nico Hulkenberg was annoyed to miss out on Q3 after struggling with both traffic and balance.

In the race, Barrichello enjoyed a relatively low-key run to sixth, while Hulkenberg had an eventful race, working his way from the outer fringes of the points to finish ninth, which became eighth after Adrian Sutil's penalty.

Renault

Robert Kubica's Friday running was limited by a hydraulic problem, and with grip problems being added to the mix on Saturday, the Pole felt that eighth was a pretty fair reflection of where the car belonged.

He was on target for sixth until suffering a puncture with 15 laps remaining, dropping him to 13th, although his resultant charge back up to seventh was one of the late-race highlights.

Vitaly Petrov, meanwhile, started on the back foot after a mistake in qualifying left him 13th on the grid, and his scrap through the midfield wasn't helped by a clash with Hulkenberg that ended up costing him three positions.

Force India

It was a low-key start to the weekend, with Tonio Liuzzi and Adrian Sutil completing their Friday running in 15th and 16th; Sutil's adventures having included a broken suspension following a heavy landing off the kerbs along the way. Things got worse in qualifying, with Sutil managing no better than 16th and Liuzzi just behind him.

Liuzzi's race ended early when he crashed on lap two after damaging his suspension in earlier contact with Nick Heidfeld, but Sutil was rewarded for a mature drive through the midfield with eighth, although a post-race penalty for cutting the chicane later dropped him to tenth.

Toro Rosso

Toro Rosso kicked the weekend off by spending Friday experimenting with an F-duct on Sebastien Buemi's car, as it had done in Monza. Come Saturday, and Jaime Alguersuari missed out on Q3 by the smallest of margins, the Spaniard lining up 11th, however Buemi fell foul of traffic and finished up 14th.

Neither had much to get excited about in the race - indeed, Alguersuari later described his trawl to 12th as "the most boring race of my career", having been forced to start from the pitlane after late repairs to a water leak, while Buemi's hopes of stealing a point were dashed by two unscheduled pitstops; one to replace the front wing following contact with Kamui Kobayashi, and the other to repressurise the hydraulic system.

Lotus

Both drivers were disappointed after qualifying, with Heikki Kovalainen being stuck between the Virgins in 19th after encountering traffic on his best lap, and Jarno Trulli blaming brake problems for leaving him in 21st.

Things didn't get much better in the race. Trulli pitted early to have a puncture attended to, and was then forced to retire with hydraulic problems a short while later. Kovalainen lasted most of the race before his car set itself on fire; the blaze being traced to a suspected cracked fuel tank pressure release valve sustained during a scrap with Buemi.

Hispania

Christian Klien made a solid start to his F1 comeback, qualifying two places ahead of team-mate Bruno Senna in 22nd. Both cars dropped out of the race on the same lap, with Klien falling victim to a hydraulic problem and Senna crashing into the wreckage left by Kamui Kobayashi.

Virgin

Jerome d'Amrosio took over Lucas di Grassi's car for Friday's opening session, the Belgian coping admirably with the daunting task of having his first 'proper' drive of an F1 car around a wet Singapore track. Timo Glock and di Grassi were please to book-end the Lotus of Kovalainen in qualifying, but Glock's hopes of translating that into a decent race result were thwarted by a hydraulic problem. Di Grassi produced a good drive to finish 15th.

Sauber

Nick Heidfeld's first run in a 2010-spec F1 car ended with the German going 13th-fastest on Friday, one place behind team-mate Kamui Kobayashi. The latter stepped up in qualifying to sneak into Q3, although Heidfeld was disappointed with his starting position of 15th, claiming that he'd failed to unlock all of the car's pace. The race ended early for both - Kobayashi walled his car early on, while Heidfeld survived early contact with Liuzzi only to be later eliminated in a clash with Schumacher instead.

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