Lewis Hamilton of McLaren has taken pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix, while Red Bull’s cars will start ahead of championship rivals Brawn GP.
Hamilton timed 1 minute, 47.891 around the Marina Bay circuit Saturday and will start alongside Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel on the front row for Sunday’s race.
“The car over the weekend got better and better,” Hamilton said. “We will see what happens with the strategy but we are in the best position, starting from the front row.
“We really didn’t expect it, so it’s a surprise.”
Brawn GP’s Rubens Barrichello crashed late in qualifying and was fifth fastest, but will start from 10th after a five-place grid penalty for changing his gearbox. The Associated Press
The Brazilian rounded off a sorry evening under the floodlights for the Brawn team by crashing into the wall to bring the qualifying to a premature end.
It left second-placed Sebastian Vettel in a frustrated second place as he looked well set in his Red Bull to wrest pole from Hamilton when it was callled off.
Nico Rosberg of Williams was third fastest, ahead of Mark Webber for Red Bull. CNN International
Formula 1: Singapore Grand Prix - Race Line-Up
Kimi Raikkonen was another with a glum face after 1m 47.177s left his Ferrari only 13th, ahead of Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso on 1m 47.369s and Jarno Trulli’s Toyota on 1m 47.413s.
The fallers in Q1 were the Force Indias of Adrian Sutil and Tonio Liuzzi which, at 1m 48.231s and 1m 48.792s book-ended Jaime Alguersuari’s Toro Rosso (1m 48.340s), Giancarlo Fisichella’s Ferrari (1m 48.350s) and Romain Grosjean’s Renault (1m 48.544s. The Franco-Swiss driver caused a flutter by going down the escape road in Turn 7 on his out lap, but proceeded without hitting anything. Formula 1
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