F1: Old "new faces" on the Singapore grid

Just under four minutes into qualifying, Massa's car broke down causing a red flag. The problem shows signs of being engine related - a major blow for Massa for, if he needs a new engine, he will not only start at the back in Singapore but also suffer a five place penalty in the next race - both he and Alonso have already used up their full allocation of eight engines for the current season.

The Singapore race sees the return to F1 of Nick Heidfeld and Christian Klein. Heidfeld, recently released by Mercedes to perform testing for Pirelli in readiness for their 2011 entry has rejoined Sauber; Klein has picked up the slack when HRT found one of their cars empty due to an ill driver (Yamamoto) - but decided not to put Chandok back in the car even though he remains under contract.

As Q2 started, Hamilton and Button were significantly quicker than the rest - a surprise after Red Bull had been dominant. But then times began to tumble; Petrov, Buemi, Alguersuari, Liuzzi and Hulkenberg all went faster before the Red Bulls and Kubica, then Alonso started to reassert a more usual order.

But then Petrov spun, hit the barrier and broke the right, rear suspension. Although he drove down an escape road, yellow flags spoiled quick runs for several drivers leaving Button and others exposed to the risk of a slow lap. But, fortunate track location saw Button able to storm to third behind Hamilton and Vettel just as the track went green. And with seven minutes to go, Rosberg was sitting in 4th whilst team-mate Schumacher languished at 17th and slowest in the session with a terrible lap almost 12 seconds slower than Hamilton's. His pit wall, usually vocal about MS's performance, is silent.

For almost four minutes, nothing changed - almost everyone was in the pits. Then Alonso surprised by finding two tenths against Hamilton's time - only to se Vettel find a further (almost) three tenths just a couple of minutes later.

As the last minute of Q2 ticked down, everyone except Petrov was out, and MS dragged himself up to 9th. But as the chequered flag came out, he put in an awful first sector time guaranteeing he would slide out of the top ten as other cars finished.Completing only 11 laps (most cars did 15), he aborted his last lap - having done a second sector that would have been quicker cycling (as he does around tracks to recce them).

Then the timing screens went wrong. Schumacher did not get knocked out - but the timing screen erroneously showed him at P3 - in fact with a time of 1.47.160 he was P9 - behind Kubica and just ahead of Kobayashi. As Q3 started, the timing screens were still wrong.

Now, with the cars in final race trim, the only variable being which tyres they would end qualifying on (and therefore start the race on - if it doesn't rain as it has done for much of the weekend) almost everyone poured out - dark clouds had threatened to dump during qualifying and no one wanted to take any chances. Button and Hamilton, first out, set storming - first sector times - but Vettel was quicker than both. Then from nowhere Alonso beat them both and Hamilton slotted in between the two McLarens. MS was three seconds off the pace in his first lap - and Vetell was also surprisingly slow as he finished the lap that had started so well.

With a little over three and a half minutes to go, almost everyone headed into the pits but Kobayashi - who had stayed in the pits - went out to take advantage of an empty track. Kubica remained in his garage, going out with just two and a half minutes to go. With a lap of 1:45 (Alonso) that gives Kubica one warm up plus one flying lap unless he is very lucky and crosses the line right before the chequered flag.

Perhaps due to the walls, or due to uncertain track conditions, all other cars went out with just enough time to do an out-lap and one flying lap. If there's a yellow flag, then they will fail to do that flying lap because they will be trapped out on the circuit when time runs out.

As the clock hit zero, Schumacher finally managed a respectable first sector and his second sector was more or less on the pace. That lifted him, temporarily, to 8th. But he lost that to Kubica.

Result: Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton, Button, Webber, Barrichello, Rosberg, Kubica, Schumacher, Kobayashi.

Out Q1

Glock, Kovalainen, DiGrassi, Trulli, Klien, Senna, Massa

Out Q2 Alguersuari, Hulkenberg, Petrov, Buemi, Heidfeld, Sutil, Liuzzi.