It was a drive that proved why the Spaniard is a double world champion. Fernando might have the best position on the grid, but race fans will be getting excited at the prospect of another very interesting battle for the championship, as all the other real contenders for the Drivers’ crown are right behind the Ferrari man. He shares the front row with Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, while the second row is an all McLaren affair, Lewis Hamilton having out-performed Jenson Button. The last of the five in the title race, Mark Webber, lines up fifth in the other Red Bull, sharing the third row with Rubens Barrichello in the Williams.

Given how competitive the F10 was last night, it was a real shame that Felipe Massa could not have been up there with his team-mate to help in the title fight. Misfortune robbed Felipe Massa of any chance of a serious shot at a good result in the fifteenth round of the world championship, as the time sheet from qualifying shows that the Brazilian failed to complete a single lap in Q1, because of a gearbox problem. The last time Felipe raced here in 2008, he started from pole, so he will now have really experienced both ends of the Singapore spectrum.

This is the first year, out of the three that F1 has been coming to Singapore, that there has been any rain on the track and the lesson learned over the past two days is that, because of the humidity, the track can take an age to dry completely, so any rain today could make a tricky circuit even more unpredictable. This brings the Scuderia’s total number of poles to 204, two of them set at this track. For Fernando, this will be the twentieth time in his career that he starts from the number one grid slot.

Stefano Domenicali. “We are very disappointed that a technical problem meant Felipe basically took no part in qualifying: he will face a very difficult race, as indeed will Fernando, although the outlook for him is very different, starting from pole position. He put in an exceptional qualifying performance, getting the very most out of the car and finding that little something extra to go quickest in Q3. It will be important to get a good start and to make the right choices, especially with a question mark over the weather and the safety-car: above all, we have to bear in mind that reliability is the crucial element.”

Fernando Alonso: “Every pole position is important, but clearly, starting from the front in a race like this and at this point in the season is very important and gives one hope of being able to bring down the gap in the classification even more. Setting two pole positions in a row, at circuits as different as Monza and Singapore is a real boost, because it means that the car can be really competitive at every type of track. It was certainly not an easy day, but in qualifying we managed to get the very best out of the car, while I don’t think our main rivals could say the same. Honestly, I thought that the Red Bulls, which had dominated the weekend so far, would be out in front and that third was a realistic target but instead I am on pole: it’s almost like an Easter surprise! There was a tense moment in Q2 when something did not work as it should have done with the engine mapping, but once it was reprogrammed, everything was back to normal. The start will be very important tomorrow, but even more so will be the need to maintain total concentration for the 61 laps of a very long race that will be extremely demanding both physically and on the car. Track conditions will play a key role, because we have seen that some sections remain damp for a long time, so just a bit of rain even a few hours before the start, could change the situation. We must run our own race and I am sure we can bring home a good result: we are in the best possible position to succeed.”

Felipe Massa: “I had a problem with the gearbox which seized unexpectedly, without giving any warning and so I had to stop out on the track: now we have to understand exactly what happened. We will change the engine as a precaution, also taking into account the fact I am last on the grid. I’m expecting to have a very complicated race, especially as we are at a track where overtaking is very difficult, but it’s true that anything can always happen: rain, safety car, who knows! I am very disappointed of course because today we had a very competitive car, as Fernando proved. I like this track but it seems that it does not bring me much luck.”

Chris Dyer: “What happened to Felipe is very disappointing. Fernando demonstrated the full potential of the F10 and it would have been nice to see both cars fighting for the top places. Unfortunately, there was a problem on the gearbox, the cause of which we have not fully identified yet, which meant Felipe had to stop out on track on his first timed lap. Fernando was really fantastic in qualifying: in Q3 he did two timed laps, both of which would have been good enough for pole, that were exceptional given what had happened up until the start of qualifying, as he had never managed to put together a clean lap on the soft tyres. The team did a great job to produce a car capable of fighting for pole. We can expect a very tough race on a track that does not pardon any mistakes. The management of the tyres will be interesting, as the degradation seems a bit more marked than in recent races, which means we might see some different strategies to usual.”