Renault at Singapore, Qualifying: Hamilton on pole, Fernando P5

Saturday 26 September 2009 | RF1 Paddock Pass
| Qualifying | Singapore

The World Champion benefited from a red flag in the final moments of Q3 to secure pole position for tomorrow's Singapore Grand Prix, while Fernando Alonso will start from fifth.



As the session started, news came through that Rubens Barrichello had finally had to change the gearbox that he had been nursing through the last two races. That meant that he would incur a 5-place grid penalty to be added to wherever he qualified.

In Q1, it soon became clear that those who had been struggling in practice were likely to be in danger of dropping out of qualifying early. Despite lots of attempts, Adrian Sutil (Force India), Jaime Alguersuari (Toro Rosso), Giancarlo Fisichella (Ferrari), Romain Grosjean and Tonio Liuzzi (Force India) all had early baths and missed the Q2 cut.

In the second part of qualifying all the drivers opted to run the super-soft tyres. The first surprise came from Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) who struggled to break into the top ten and qualified 13th. Jenson Button was in a similar position as he made some small errors, which cost him a place in Q3 as he qualified in 12th. Also knocked out were Jarno Trulli (Toyota), Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) and the second Toro Rosso of Sebastien Buemi. Nico Rosberg clocked the best time, more than half a second clear of his nearest rival and staked his claim for a potential pole position.

The final part of qualifying saw Lewis Hamilton set the initial pace after the first round of quick laps, just ahead of Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull Renault and the Williams of Rosberg. All the drivers then headed for the pits for fresh rubber to begin their final flying laps. But the session was cut short as Barrichello crashed into the barriers with less than a minute of the session remaining, brining out the red flags and preventing anybody from improving their time. The first two rows of the grid will therefore be as follows: Lewis Hamilton, Sebastian Vettel, Nico Rosberg and Mark Webber. Prior to his crash, Barrichello was fifth fastest, but with his 5-place penalty he will start the race from tenth. Fernando set the sixth fastest time, which becomes fifth on the grid - a better result than he expected at the start of qualifying.