Hamilton lights up Singapore qualifying

F1 News
Date: 22/September/2012

Lewis Hamilton continued the McLaren F1 team’s rich vein of form with a dominant pole position on Saturday night in Singapore.

Hamilton, who remains the centre of speculation over his 2013 plans, seized his fifth pole of the season by a comfortable 0.442s ahead Pastor Maldonado (Williams) with practice pace setter Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull) reduced to third.

Championship leader Fernando Alonso was fifth for Ferrari, meaning that nearest rival Hamilton stands an excellent chance of reducing the Spaniard’s 37 point advantage on Sunday.

Hamilton has won from pole in two of the last three races, with team-mate Jenson Button taking victory from pole in the other. Button is to start fourth on the grid.

Hamilton said: “The guys have done a fantastic job all week and we have improved some small things from the last race.

“We have high downforce here so we weren’t sure where we would turn out against the others and obviously Sebastian was incredibly fast through most of the sessions, I’m not really sure what happened to him in the end.

“Nonetheless I’m very happy that I was able to pull that time out. A great lap.”

Vettel, the defending Singapore winner, was left disappointed by qualifying - but expects to be back in the hunt for the race.

“Yeah, a little disappointed,” said the German. “I don’t know why we couldn’t do the step in Q3. Nevertheless, third is a good position to start from and I think the speed is there.

“The race is very long, a lot of things can happen - safety cars - so it's important to be in the right place at the right time and then we go from there.”

Looking ahead to the race, round 14 of 20, Hamilton expects tyre degradation to play a key role in the outcome.

“It’s an incredibly tough circuit for tyre degradation, especially as it’s hot and humid here,” he said, “So I think everyone is going to struggle with that, and I think we just have to try and get away cleanly at the start and stick to the strategy that we have planned and be prepared if it doesn’t work.”

The fine line between success and failure at the Singapore street circuit was illustrated by Hamilton brushing the wall at the end of qualifying.

“I did?” he asked, unaware of the contact. “That means I'm using all the road! I didn't mean to and hopefully hasn't done any damage, but I honestly didn't feel it.”