Vettel showed supreme confidence, going out in every qualifying session to lay down a lap half a second faster than the rest, then parking in the garage to relax while the other chased.
Vettel showed that he was not over-confident in the post-qualifying praess conference on SPEED: “The circuit ramped up in the end a little bit. I think it was possible to go faster but, all in all, a perfect session and I am very happy, especially around here as it is a fun track.
“A big challenge. It is very difficult. So many corners. Such a long lap to get everything together, but I think we learned especially from the mistakes we did last year in qualifying and kept our heads cool and did it today. It is great. We have both cars on the front row. Let’s see tomorrow. It is a very, very long race.”
Mark Webber was fifth when he turned in a flyer at the end of the session, posting fastest Sector One time and bumping McLaren and Ferrari to take P2. Webber agreed about how tough the track is:“I am pretty happy, to be honest. It has been a pretty testing venue for me in the past, particularly on Saturdays. In the races I normally go a bit better around here. It is a very, very challenging venue. Not one I would pick to come to every week, but it’s my job to deliver on all the tracks we go to.”
Lewis Hamilton punctured a tire in Q2, which may explain why he did not defend his P2 run in the final session. Hamilton watched helpless as teammate Jenson Button bumped him (by only .005 seconds) and then Mark Webber bumped them both. Hopefully during the race he will make good use of the set of tires he saved by not contesting qualifying.
His teammate Jenson Button didn’t get many laps after a brake failure in Friday practice, but he felt he could overcome that.
“I am happy to be in the top three and it is the clean side of the circuit. Good position but the worry for tomorrow is that I haven’t driven on high-fuel so I don’t know how that’s going to feel but I’m sure we’ll make the best of it,” he told the assembled media.
The grid will be lined up by teams: Red Bull owns the first row, followed by McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Force India, whose drivers surprised everyone by making it into Q3.
Sebastian Vettel has more than another race win on the line at Singapore; if Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso doesn’t finish on the podium, Vettel will have locked up this second World Driver’s Championship, becoming the youngest driver to win two.
The race, run at night in Singapore, will start at 8 a.m. ET. Live broadcast on SPEED TV begins at 7:30.
