Zoom A sell-out crowd on hand for qualifying

Ferrari: Pole sitter Felipe Massa's Q3 advantage over his championship rival Lewis Hamilton in Singapore qualifying was a huge seven tenths. "With hindsight it's easy to say maybe I could have run with slightly more fuel," the Brazilian, who described his best lap of the circuit as "perfect", said. Kimi Raikkonen was on the pace in Q1 and Q2 after his evening practice technical problem, and qualified behind Hamilton.

McLaren Mercedes: Hamilton ultimately qualified on the front row, but he very nearly had to sit out the Q3 action, scraping in by the barest of margins after messing up an early lap. "Thank goodness," his engineer was heard saying on the radio. Heikki Kovalainen was quicker than his team-mate in Q1 and Q2 and qualified fifth in Q3 when he brushed a wall. "Even a minor mistake can cost you a few places," the Finn said.

BMW Sauber: Robert Kubica qualified fourth, two places ahead of his team-mate Nick Heidfeld, and both declared themselves happy" Heidfeld was later handed a penalty as he inadvertently baulked Rubens Barrichello that drops him to ninth on the grid. Technical boss Willy Rampf said: "We are well prepared for the race."

Toro Rosso Ferrari: Sebastien Bourdais did not break through the Q1 barrier, but his Monza winning team-mate Sebastian Vettel climbed all the qualifying hurdles and lines up P7 on the grid. "As yet, we have seen nothing in the data to indicate an anomaly," said engineer Giorgio Ascanelli, after Bourdais complained about a bizarrely-behaving STR3.

Toyota: The TF108 has not been a standout performer on the bumpy Singapore streets, but - unlike the usual qualifying specialist Jarno Trulli (P11) - Timo Glock raced through all qualifying segments and is eighth. "Jarno has had a difficult weekend," said technical boss Pascal Vasselon.

Williams Toyota: Nico Rosberg has featured in the upper elements of the timesheets throughout the Singapore weekend, and qualified ninth. "I did hope for a little more," admitted the German, whose team-mate Kazuki Nakajima completes the top half of the grid. "Congratulations to Kazuki on his first top ten qualifying result," said technical boss Sam Michael.

Honda: It says a lot about Honda's 2008 car, which is better suited to high downforce tracks, that Jenson Button (P12) is "pretty happy" to miss the Q3 cut by three tenths of a second. "It's nice to have the pace to compete in Q2 again," the Briton said. Rubens Barrichello is ahead only of the slowest Force Indias, after complaining about qualifying traffic.