Hamilton Storms to Pole in Singapore

Lewis Hamilton set a scorching pace in Saturday’s qualifying to take pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday and give his title hopes a boost.
Hamilton was almost half a second quicker than anyone else in Formula One’s only night-time qualifying session, while championship leader Fernando Alonso could only manage fifth.
Second place went to Williams driver Pastor Maldonado, whose time of 1 minute 48.804 seconds was well adrift of Hamilton’s 1:46.362, set early in the top-ten shootout.
Reigning champion Sebastian Vettel was a further tenth of a second adrift in third after topping the time charts in all three practice sessions, just edging out Hamilton’s teammate Jenson Button.
Alonso’s time of 1:47.216 was almost a second slower than Hamilton, his closest rival in the championship standings.
Paul di Resta took sixth, with Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber seventh and Romain Grosjean eighth for Lotus after a minor shunt in the second session.
The two Mercedes drivers, Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg, were ninth and tenth respectively after the team opted not to have them set a time in the top-ten shootout in an apparent attempt to conserve tires.
Kimi Raikkonen, currently third in the championship for Lotus, was 12th after failing to reach the third session.
Bruno Senna’s second session was cut short when he crashed into the wall, leaving the Brazilian 17th.
Senna is reportedly struggling to find a drive for next season after regularly finishing below his Williams teammate Maldonado.
Russian driver Vitaly Petrov was 19th with a time of 1:50.846, three tenths ahead of teammate Heikki Kovalainen, despite having had his car rebuilt after crashing in Saturday practice.
The only driver with a grid penalty is HRT’s Pedro de la Rosa, although he will not be affected by his five-place drop for a gearbox change because he qualified 24th and last.

Qualifying results:
1. Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
2. Pastor Maldonado (Williams)
3. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
4. Jenson Button (McLaren)
5. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
6. Paul di Resta (Force India)
7. Mark Webber (Red Bull)
8. Romain Grosjean (Lotus)
9. Michael Schumacher (Mercedes)
10. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
11. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India)
12. Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)
13. Felipe Massa (Ferrari)
14. Sergio Perez (Sauber)
15. Daniel Ricciardo (Toro Rosso)
16. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso)
17. Bruno Senna (Williams)
18. Kamui Kobayashi (Sauber)
19. Vitaly Petrov (Caterham)
20. Heikki Kovalainen (Caterham)
21. Timo Glock (Marussia)
22. Charles Pic (Marussia)
23. Narain Karthikeyan (HRT)
24. Pedro de la Rosa (HRT)