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Practice and qualifying[edit]

Prior to the qualifying session on Saturday September 27, three free practice sessions were held; two sessions on Friday and one session on Saturday. With the race to be held in night, the practice sessions were also scheduled accordingly. The Friday practice sessions were held at 1600hrs and 2000hrs local time, each lasting for 90 minutes. The third practice session was held on Saturday at 1700hrs local time for one hour.[1][2]

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in the first practice session on Friday. He was followed by Ferraris of Massa and Räikkönen and his McLaren teammate Kovalainen. Red Bull's Mark Webber suffered a crash on Turn 18 barriers, damaging his front suspension. A number of drivers faced problems in final turn of the track, including Honda's Rubens Barrichello who crashed backwards into barriers. Toyota's Jarno Trulli also spun on this turn and made his way into the pits by driving in the wrong direction. Trulli was fined €10,000 for his misconduct.[3][4] Renault's Fernando Alonso topped the time-sheets in the second practice session, displacing Hamilton to second position with his final flying lap. The two were followed by Kovalainen, Massa and Nico Rosberg. In a close incident, Toro Rosso's Sébastien Bourdais almost ran into Nick Heidfeld of BMW Sauber as he exited from the pit lane into the first turn. In other incidents, Timo Glock lost his front wing on crashing into wall on Turn 7, Giancarlo Fisichella faced gearbox problems and Massa mistakenly took a wrong turn towards the escape road off the track.[5][6]

Alonso was once again the fastest man on the track in the final practice session, with Hamilton and Massa second and third respectively. Multiple drivers faced problems with bumps on the track, narrowly avoiding accidents. Fisichella rammed his Force India VJM01 hard into the barriers when it flew off the kerbs on Turn 10 chicane. The accident caused front wing and suspension damages to the car.[7][8]


Räikkönen topped the first qualifying session, ahead of Kovalainen and Hamilton. Nelson Piquet Jr., Sébastien Bourdais, Rubens Barrichello, Adrian Sutil and Giancarlo Fisichella were those who were eliminated in this session. Fisichella could not record a time during the session after he crashed into barriers at Turn 3 due to a punctured tyre, thus was 20th and last.[9] Barrichello was impeded during his second lap run by Nick Heidfeld and abandoned his lap to enter pits. Both Heidfeld and Barrichello were penalised for their maneuvers: Heidfeld was dropped three grids for blocking and Barrichello was fined €10,000 for unsafe pit lane entry, without using the deceleration zone.[10]

The second qualifying session was led by Felipe Massa, with Kovalainen and Räikkönen in second and third place. Alonso, despite his performance during practice sessions, was eliminated early in this session when his car suffered a fuel feed problem.[11] The others who missed the top ten were Jarno Trulli, Jenson Button and both Red Bulls of Mark Webber and David Coulthard. Hamilton barely managed to reach the third session, after a driving mistake during his penultimate lap run.[9]

Massa took the pole position in the final session, with Hamilton, Räikkönen and Kubica completing first two rows of the grid. Massa secured his position by clocking lap time six-tenths faster than Hamilton, describing it as his best qualifying result of the season.[9] Kovalainen, managing fifth position, rued his tyre selections in the final session.[12] Heidfeld, Vettel and Glock scored sixth, seventh and eighth positions, with Williams drivers Rosberg and Nakajima were ninth and tenth.[13]


  1. ^ "Night-time practice and qualifying for Singapore". Formula1.com. 2008-01-31. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
  2. ^ "2008 Formula One Sporting Regulations" (PDF). Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. 2008-05-19. pp. 17–19. Retrieved 2009-01-18.
  3. ^ Matt Beer (2008-09-26). "Hamilton tops first ever night practice". Autosport.com. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  4. ^ "Practice One - Hamilton fastest in first-ever night session". Formula1.com. 2008-09-26. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  5. ^ Matt Beer (2008-09-26). "Alonso quickest in second practice". Autosport.com. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  6. ^ "Practice Two - Alonso at the 11th hour". Formula1.com. 2008-09-26. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  7. ^ Matt Beer (2008-09-27). "Alonso tops final practice in Singapore". Autosport.com. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  8. ^ "Final practice - Alonso sets Saturday pace in Singapore". Formula1.com. 2008-09-27. Retrieved 2008-09-27.
  9. ^ a b c "Qualifying - selected driver quotes". Formula1.com. 2008-09-27. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
  10. ^ "Heidfeld dropped, Barrichello fined after pit-entry confusion". Formula1.com. 2008-09-27. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
  11. ^ Matt Beer (2008-09-27). "Massa storms to Singapore GP pole". Autosport.com. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
  12. ^ "Singapore Saturday quotes: McLaren". Autosport.com. 2008-09-27. Retrieved 2008-09-28.
  13. ^ "Massa storms to first floodlit pole in Singapore". Formula1.com. 2008-09-27. Retrieved 2008-09-28.


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