Lewis Hamilton dominated Saturday's
qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix to claim pole position for the third
time in the last four races of the Formula One season.
The McLaren star clocked a best time of one minute 46.392 seconds
under the lights of the Marina Bay Street Circuit to take first place on the
grid by nearly half a second from Venezuela's Pastor Maldonado in his Williams.
Two-time defending world champion Sebastian Vettel had shown
impressive pace in his Red Bull in the practice sessions but had to settle for
third place, just ahead of Hamilton's teammate Jenson Button.
Championship leader Fernando Alonso was a solid fifth for Ferrari,
but his teammate Felipe Massa was back in 13th.
Speculation
about Hamilton's future has been the talk of the pit lane, but after his
victory in the preceding round in Italy he was again complimenting his team.
Hamilton focuses on
championship
"The guys have done a fantastic job all week. The session was
great, although I'm not sure what happened with Sebastian (Vettel) who had been
fastest all the way through before that."
Such was Hamilton's mastery of the final session, two of his
qualifying runs were faster than Maldonado's as he claimed a 24th career pole.
The pair had a controversial clash at the European Grand Prix in
Valencia and Hamilton will be looking to avoid a similar problem.
"I'll have to get away cleanly. We'll stick to the strategy we
have planned and be prepared if it doesn't work," he added.
Britain's Paul Di Resta was an excellent sixth for Force India
ahead of the second Red Bull of Mark Webber of Australia.
Romain Grosjean returned after his one-race ban to take eighth for
Lotus with the Mercedes pair of Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg rounding
out the top 10.
Earlier Saturday, race officials announced they had been granted a
five-year extension to their contract with F1, ensuring the race will continue
until at least 2017 at the same venue.
CNN.com September 22, 2012
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