Massa pulled off a phenomenal qualifying lap this evening in the inaugural qualifying session of the Singapore Grand Prix to take pole position. 

The Brazilian claimed pole from Hamilton by a massive two thirds of a second difference. Lewis had only just sneaked in to Q3 after a poor performance in Q2 saw him only just make the final cut. 

Raikkonen will line up in third position although his pace was 0.8s slower than his team mate’s. It was his best qualifying performance since way back in July at the British Grand Prix. The world champion also had a few hair raising moments when he only managed to qualify for Q2 in the dying minutes of the first session. 

The other McLaren of Kovalainen had looked to be in great form throughout Q1 and Q2 but the Finn could not put it together for the final session and Kubica, in the BMW will split the Ferraris and the McLarens on the grid by starting fourth with Heikki behind him. 

Nick Heidfeld rounded off a successful day for BMW when he finished in sixth. Sebastian Vettel did another tremendous job in his Toro Rosso and will start the first Singapore Grand Prix fighting with the big guns yet again, in seventh. Toyota’s Glock out qualified his team mate and will start in eighth. Trulli missed the final qualifying session by only 0.1s and starts in 11^th. 

The Williams team round off the top ten with Rosberg and Nakajima lining up ninth and tenth respectively. 

Jenson Button didn’t have too bad a time of it in his Honda and took 12^th. Mark Webber and David Coulthard line up behind him in 13^th and 14^th. 

The big disappointment of the day was for Fernando Alonso. The former world champion had been in fantastic form, completing the last practise sessions at the top of the time sheets. Q1 had been equally as successful and the Renault had a great chance of qualifying on the front two rows. Unfortunately the Spaniard’s car came to a halt during Q2 and Fernando will start tomorrow’s race in 15^th.

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