Alonso flashes to Singapore pole

Fernando Alonso beat Sebastian Vettel in Saturday’s qualifying session to take pole position for the 2010 Singapore Grand Prix.

The two of them will share the front row of the grid while the McLarens of Hamilton and Button will line up on the second row. Championship leader Mark Webber qualified fifth fastest.

Let’s have a look at how the session panned out:

Q1

Most of the field left the pits as soon as the light went green as the drivers were afraid of falling foul of the traffic in this first segment of qualifying.

Tonio Liuzzi posted the first time on the board as Michael Schumacher brilliantly escaped from a huge sideways moment. It wasn’t long before the Force India driver was demoted from the top spot and the McLarens took over at the front.

Alonso then went fastest but Sebastian Vettel had the last word with a best 1’47’’303. Webber was up in P3 when Felipe Massa stopped on track and caused the session to be red-flagged.

It re-started after a short interruption. Yet to post a time, Barrichello, Hulkenberg, Sutil and Kubica diligently did so and were thus guaranteed to make it through to Q2.

Vettel didn’t bother to leave the pits for a second run and lost his first place to Fernando Alonso. Webber was third fastest. Kubica and Hulkenberg completed the top five.

The eliminated drivers were Massa, Senna, Klien, Trulli, di Grassi, Kovalainen and Glock.

Q2

The battle resumed after a short break.

After posting the first time on the board, Vitaly Petrov made a mistake and span. His Renault hit the wall and damaged the right-rear suspension.

Sebastian Vettel had just popped up at the front but was soon relegated to P2 by Lewis Hamilton. Alonso was down in P8 and was heard complaining about his engine mapping. After a short stay in the garage, the Spaniard rejoined the track and kicked off the second round of flying runs.

Now satisfied with his Ferrari, he set a 1’45’’809 to go fastest of all. But Vettel was already in a hot lap and took over at the front with a 1’45’’561. Webber moved up to P3 as the McLaren drivers found some improvements but couldn’t break the 1’46 barrier.

Rosberg, Kubica, Barrichello, Schumacher and Kobayashi joined the title contenders in Q3.

Toro Rosso’s Alguersuari missed out on the top ten shootout for less than a tenth of a second. He was eliminated alongside Hulkenberg, Petrov, Buemi, Heidfeld, Sutil and Liuzzi.

Q3

Button and Hamilton led the field away as the light went green.

Alonso set the fastest time ahead of Hamilton and Webber while Vettel lost some time behind the Mercedes of Schumacher. The German was sixth after the first run.

Kubica and Kobayashi left the pits as the eight other drivers came in for a refuel and fresh tyres.

Enjoying a clear track this time, Sebastian Vettel improved his time but couldn’t better Alonso’s best effort and had to content himself with P2. Hamilton was third fastest with teammate Button fourth.