Formula One 2011

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Indian Grand Prix organisers have moved to ease fears about Formula 1 teams having to pay custom duties during the inaugural race in the country later this year.

A report in the national media said that the Indian government was not willing to grant a custom exemption to teams since it does not consider Formula 1 to be a sport.

That would mean teams having to pay to temporary import their equipment into the country for the race.

Race promoter Jaypee Sports International Limited said on Wednesday, however, that it had the full support of the government, and claimed it would pay for the taxes itself if necessary.

"JPSI has full support from the government, the sports ministry and the customs department for the F1 event scheduled for October this year," said Sameer Gaur, CEO of JPSI said in a statement.

"We have an in-principle approval from the customs department for creating a customs bonded area for F1 equipment that will be temporarily imported to India.

"If required, as per the law of the land, JPSI will pay customs duties and taxes etc. for the temporary import of equipment. The estimated value of this equipment is about Rs. 150 crore and the final duty payable on this will be approximately Rs. eight crore."

The Chairman of Central Board of Exise and Customs told PTI that an exemption could not be granted since India did not consider the grand prix an even of national importance.

"When equipments are imported for sports events of national importance, the Sports Ministry issues a certificate on the basis of which Customs Department issues exemption notification subject to them (equipment) getting exported back. For Commonwealth Games and the (cricket) World Cup, those certificates were issued, so we gave exemption," said S D Majumder.

"In this case, the Sports Ministry has not given any certificate, so there is no question of granting any exemption. As it is, they are entitled to get duty drawback up to 98 per cent on the equipment imported.

"So effectively, they will have to pay only around 2 per cent. This is not an event of national importance so no such exemption is required."

Williams conducted a straightline test at Kemble Airfield today to evaluate its upgrade package for the six season-ending flyaway races.

Reserve driver Valtteri Bottas, who clinched the GP3 championship at Monza last Saturday, was on driving duty during the test, which was due to be held last week but had to be cancelled because of weather conditions.

The upgrade package that should be raced for the first time in Singapore next week includes a modified exhaust blown diffuser and new front wing, although AUTOSPORT understands that Williams was also evaluating other aero components that could also be used.

Robert Wickens made his testing debut at the wheel of a Formula 1 car on Tuesday when he drove for the Virgin Racing team at Vairano.

The Canadian, who had joined the team as a reserve driver earlier this year, completed a straight-line testing programme for the outfit at the Italian circuit.

Wickens, who had previously driven F1 machinery when he completed a demo run for Renault, covered 210 km in the MVR-02 car.

"It was great to work with the team in this way," he said. "Driving the car is obviously a natural step in my progression and education as a Reserve Driver with Marussia Virgin Racing.

"Like all drivers I'm eager for seat time and the work we did today undoubtedly plays an important role for the team in its aerodynamic development program.

"It was a good day and I was happy to sample the car for myself, albeit in a straight line, having watched Timo and Jerome behind the wheel for the past couple of months!"

Team principal John Booth added: "It was a slow start to the day due to an issue with the engine, however the Cosworth technicians working with the team did a good job to solve the problem as quickly as possible. From that point on, the day ran pretty much to plan and we have been able to collect a huge amount of data to analyse.

"Robert also did a great job in his F1 testing debut. It was his first time in the MVR-02 car and he adapted very quickly to the controls and steering wheel. It has been a very positive experience for him which he has handled very well."

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Fernando Alonso believes that Ferrari should be quick enough to fight for a victory in Singapore that would prevent the title being wrapped up by Sebastian Vettel at Formula 1's night race.

The Spaniard is Vettel's closest challenger in the championship standings, albeit 112 points behind, and can stop his Red Bull rival being crowned in Singapore if he finishes on the podium - irrespective of who wins the race.

Alonso knows that his titles hopes are all but over for the year, but says that it will not stop him pushing as hard as he can for wins.

"Singapore is always a very special circuit," he said during a live video chat on Ferrari's website on Thursday. "It is a street circuit with all the characteristics we normally like.

"We were quick in Monaco also this year. I still think in Singapore that we have the possibility, the chance, of being competitive.

"So our aim, when we arrive to Singapore, will be to win the race. After practice and qualifying we will see where we are exactly. But now, before the race, there is one clear aim - which is winning."

With Ferrari now devoting all its resources into ensuring its 2012 car can hit the ground running next year, Alonso does not see much chance of delivering a run of results that could overhaul Vettel.

"I think in this part of the year, with the advantage that Vettel has, winning the title is not mathematically impossible but it is extremely difficult. We will fight to get second place in the championship, which is better than fifth, and try and enjoy every Sunday as we did in Monza - where we qualified fourth, attacked aggressively at first corner, fought in the race and then enjoyed the podium."

And Alonso said that the fact that he is currently second in the world championship - in what he has been a disappointing campaign for Ferrari - shows how much better things should be in 2012 if its car delivers on its promises.

"Our expectations are always very high," he said. "We are Ferrari so we know that we need to keep fighting, and we need to be competitive.

"The world championship is the main target every year, because you race for the best team in the world. Next year we will start again preparing the winter and the season in the best way possible, and try and fight for the world championship.

"This year we did not complete our expectations. We were not quick enough in some parts of the year, and we struggled a lot with the 2011 car. Even with these problems we are second in the championship so that shows our aims and ambitions to reach our targets."

Mark Webber has conceded he is effectively fighting for second place in the championship despite team-mate Sebastian Vettel's claim that there is still a long way to go in the title battle.

Vettel took his eighth win of the season at Monza last weekend to extend his lead in the standings to 112 points over Ferrari's Fernando Alonso with six races left.

Vettel would be champion in the next race in Singapore if he wins the race and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton is second, Webber or Jenson Button finish lower than second, and Alonso finishes outside the podium.

The reigning world champion said earlier this week that there was still work to do to secure the title, but Red Bull team-mate Webber reckons there is nothing his rivals can do.

"Seb won the race again and, although he is not quite champion again yet, we're all now effectively fighting for second place," Webber wrote in his column for the BBC website.

On Sunday, Webber suffered his first retirement since last year's Korean Grand Prix after he made contact with Ferrari's Felipe Massa when trying to overtake the Brazilian.

The Australian, who dropped to third in the standings, admitted he should have been more patient in trying to pass Massa.

"The Italian Grand Prix was one of those races that remind you how much it sucks to not finish," he added.

"It's been a while for me, but it's such a frustrating feeling - both for yourself and for the team after all the effort that has gone in. It was doubly disappointing in Monza because the car was better than it has been all year."

"It felt phenomenal in the first few laps, and I just got a bit carried away trying to come back through the field. I should have been much more patient with Felipe Massa.

"The move was certainly on, but I clipped the kerb and we collided. And then I couldn't get the car back to the pits because there was some stuff jammed underneath and I went straight on into the barriers at Parabolica."

Mark Webber believes Michael Schumacher was "pushing the boundaries" during his fight with Lewis Hamilton at the Italian Grand Prix.

The seven-time champion was involved in an intense battle with the McLaren driver in the early parts of the Monza race while they battled for third position.

Schumacher's driving was labelled as "pretty harsh" by McLaren team boss Martin Whitmarsh after the German changed lines more than once to defend his position.

Red Bull driver Webber said Schumacher's driving was not what other racers understand to be acceptable and believes the German was pushing the limits with his defence.

"It was a unique fight between Michael and Lewis because the McLaren was running up against the rev limiter, so Michael had a speed advantage on the straights," Webber wrote in his column for the BBC.

"He could position his car very cutely to try to keep him out.

"There were a few times when Michael returned to the normal line having defended. That's the point of interest because it's not what most drivers understand to be acceptable.

"One incident in particular stood out - out of the second chicane and into Lesmo, when Lewis had a clear run and Michael went across to defend and then came back again.

"Moving that many times was pushing the boundaries."

Michael Schumacher's robust defence against Lewis Hamilton at Monza last weekend has been praised by the head of Mercedes-Benz cars as 'pure racing'.

Dieter Zetsche, who is chairman of Daimler as well as head of Mercedes-Benz, told media at the Frankfurt Motor Show that he was excited at seeing Schumacher fighting so hard near the front of the field.

"Michael did a great job with a car that is still not yet quite at the same level as our best competitors," said Zetsche.

"It was a thrilling battle over twenty laps; it was pure racing. I was so excited that I almost wanted to climb inside the TV! It was absolutely of the highest class.

"And if Nico [Rosberg] hadn't been crashed out by another car on lap one, we could even have seen two drivers in that position. It was a great race."

Zetsche, who was speaking after Mercedes-Benz this week unveiled its new 2012 DTM car, the C-Class Coupe, added that he expected the touring car championship to take a big step forward in popularity next year thanks to there being three manufacturers.

"F1 is naturally the highlight in motorsport; it is highly emotional and top class," he said. "That much is clear. In parallel, the DTM has developed to an exciting level. It can be thought of as easier for people to relate to and, of course, the cars more closely resemble our production models. Those are the reasons why people love this series.

"And now that we will once again have three manufacturers, it will take another step forward. People like to describe the DTM as a German series but that's not true any more, because there are a lot of international races.

"In this respect, the value of the platform grows from year to year, the races are even more entertaining to watch with genuine wheel-to-wheel action - and sometimes even a bit more – which is what motorsport fans love.

"It's also about the drivers. There are some well-known names and, as always with motorsport, they are the centre of attention. That's true in the DTM too and that makes it a great series, which is growing even bigger, just like F1."

Pirelli wants to revamp the colour coding of its tyres for next season in a bid to make it clearer for fans exactly which compounds drivers are using.

Formula 1's official tyre supplier opted for different coloured logos on the four compounds for this season - with silver [hard], white [medium], yellow [soft] and red [super soft] being chosen ahead of the start of this season.

However, the colours have not proved easy to tell apart at times - especially at those races where the medium and hard tyres have been used.

Pirelli director of motorsport Paul Hembery has said that there will be a rethink ahead of 2012, not only on the colours used but also the way the tyres are marked.

"I think we need to have a little bit of variety there and we need to improve the marking, certainly in the harder and medium compound with the silver and white," he told AUTOSPORT.

"So we need to differentiate that and give more colour, so the tyres are recognisable when they are going around. We are working on it. We haven't got the solutions yet and maybe we could even have a contest for people to choose Pirelli tyre colours next year."

Hembery has said that the biggest issue Pirelli has is in sorting out how to apply colours to the sidewalls of the tyres – rather than what colour they should be.

"It is more the process – the colour itself we can decide very late," he said. "The thing that takes time is working out the process for getting the colours on the tyres. It might sound very simple but when you are trying to print and put something on a curved sidewall, and it also has to be something that resists going over kerbs and rubbing, it is a rather convoluted process.

"There are not that many people in the world who do that, it is something you have to invent yourself and perfect yourself, but we are working on it."

Hembery also said that with the company using stickers as its current markings, there were no plans to introduce a glow-in-the-dark element for next weekend's Singapore GP as Bridgestone did last season.

"For this year, no," he said. "We are using a sticker, which means when the tyre is being cured, the label is put on its side then. With labelling technology as it is now, you cannot get the fluorescent pigments into it."

Pirelli has also now totally ruled out the idea of qualifying tyres being made available next year, after proposing the idea as one of many changes that could come into force if teams wanted them.

The Formula One Teams' Association (FOTA) is hoping that it will be able to approach the looming Concorde Agreement negotiations from a stronger position following the appointment of corporate group DC Advisory Partners to help guide it.

With talks to frame the last Concorde Agreement in 2009 nearly collapsing as teams came close to forming a breakaway, it is expected that sorting out the next document that binds the teams, the FIA and Formula 1's commercial rights holder together will be just as fraught.

As a result, FOTA has appointed DC Advisory Partners and IMG (International Management Group) to help provide the teams with a better insight into what they should be pushing for to help benefit their cause from 2013.

FOTA chairman Martin Whitmarsh told AUTOSPORT: "We've appointed DC Advisory and IMG, and basically we're just saying 'let's now come together and be a little bit more coherent as a group of teams'.

"I think we should just be professional enough, rather than [just] saying what we could do here, or what we could do in the media. I'm not the expert; I'm an engineer who likes racing cars. That's what I am, and I can handle being a team principal.

"Most of us are racers, more than businessmen - and some of us think we're better businessmen than others - but nonetheless we are racers. So I think our view is ' let's see if we can construct some alternative business models'.

"It is so that we're able to say, with a bit of luck, 'here is some expert advice and a view about what we can do to actually make this sport bigger and better than it is today'. And that's what we're trying to do."

Although some have viewed the appointment of DC Advisory Partners as the first step of a move by teams to takeover the sport, Whitmarsh insists that the motivating factor is simply in trying to find ways to improve the sport.

"It's not an aggressive manoeuvre, it's not trying to do anything secretly, I'm not trying to conceal it," he said.

"These things leak out, such is the sport. But it's a piece of work that we've undertaken so that we can see together. We'll review it in about eight weeks' time, all of the teams...and from that we'll decide what we want to share with our partners. Then we will take a view and make some recommendations as to how we think the sport should go forward."

Nick Heidfeld has not given up on a return to Formula 1 next year, despite being dropped by the Renault team last month.

The German lost his seat at the Enstone-based outfit ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, after the team felt that it needed a shake-up of its driver line-up and wanted to give Bruno Senna a chance.

Heidfeld briefly attempted to take the matter to court before a deal was agreed, which left the way clear for Senna to remain at the team until the end of the year.

Although there appear to be limited opportunities for Heidfeld to return, he has told this week's AUTOSPORT that he does not believe his F1 career is at an end.

"I am more than hopeful I can secure a seat," he said. "Next year's cockpits are limited but we are working on it.

"We already have sponsors interested in joining. But if this becomes the main reason to get a drive, then I can most likely not compete with a huge multi-million dollar backing."

Heidfeld's last full season in F1 was with BMW Sauber in 2009 and, after losing his place at the team, he spent a period as Mercedes GP test driver at the start of 2010 before being drafted back in by Sauber towards the end of the campaign.

After losing his seat again, Heidfeld was called up by Renault as replacement for Robert Kubica, who was seriously injured in a rally crash in February this year.

HRT is closing in on a deal for experienced designer Jorg Zander to head up its technical operations, as part of an effort to ramp up facilities in Munich.

With HRT's new owners Thesan Capital helping team principal Colin Kolles push forward with plans to help the outfit move forward, a rethink about its technical operations has been under way over the past few months.

AUTOSPORT understands that an original plan to set up a design office in Brackley has been abandoned, and that the idea now is to base the operation out of Munich, which is just an hour's drive away from the team's race factory at Greding.

A deal put in place for the team to use the Mercedes-Benz wind tunnel facility in Brackley will continue.

As part of his new technical role, Zander is set to be put in charge of the Munich facility to help push forward with the design of the 2012 car, and he will work in tandem with new chief aerodynamicist Stephane Schosse, who has worked at Toyota, Sauber and Ligier in the past.

Zander has a depth of experience in F1, having worked at Toyota, BAR, Williams, BMW-Sauber, and then Honda/Brawn GP - leaving in the middle of the team's title-winning 2009 campaign.

The technical shake-up at HRT appears to point towards technical director Geoff Willis no longer being part of the team's plans, having originally joined the outfit in February 2010 as a consultant.

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Max Chilton got his first taste of Formula 1 machinery at Kemble on Thursday when he was drafted in by Force India to conduct a straight-line aerodynamic test.

The Briton, who has raced in GP2 this year, was called up because the team's regular drivers were engaged elsewhere.

Although the day's running was cut short by an exhaust problem, the team was pleased with the data it got back from the running, and with the way Chilton dealt with his work.

Force India's Oliver Knighton, who is race support engineer, said: "We were able to record the important aero data, which we will analyse over the next few days.

"I'd like to say a special 'thank you' to Max, who enjoyed his first taste of an F1 car today. He prepared himself very well and adapted quickly to the procedures and systems on the car, all of which allowed us to make good progress with the programme."

Romain Grosjean got himself back up to speed with Formula 1 machinery this week by testing a 2009 Renault at Valencia, ahead of his travels to the final flyaway events as the team's official reserve driver.

The Frenchman, who won this year's GP2 Series, has not tested an F1 car properly since 2009, and he was given two days at Valencia this week in an R29 to get used once again to the power and handling characteristics of grand prix machinery.

Speaking after his run, having completed 600 kilometres, Grosjean said: "It is always fantastic to get back in an F1 car. The aim of the drive was to get me used to drive an F1 car again.

"We did some qualifying running in the morning and some long running in the afternoon. We also did some pitstop practices. It was very good for the fitness; I was very pleased and I did enjoy working with the team a lot. It felt different compared to 2009 because I am more experienced now.

"I enjoyed the car from the moment I jumped in and I enjoyed working with the engineers. We had a good time in Valencia and everybody enjoyed it."

Sergio Perez has completed his first test for Ferrari, after getting half a day's running in the 2009 F60 car at Fiorano on Thursday.

The test formed part of the Ferrari Driver Academy programme, of which Perez is a member, with the Italian outfit eager to help develop the next wave of young drivers that are coming into the sport.

Perez had two days of running in Ferrari's simulator at Maranello before completing 46 laps of Fiorano - with his best time being 1m00.650s.

"This was a really special day for me," said the Perez. "I want to thank Ferrari for giving me this chance to improve and learn, given the limited number of testing opportunities during the year. Driving a Ferrari was a dream for me and it's also important for my career, learning with a team like this and experiencing a different approach to the work."

With Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali having complimented Perez earlier this week, there is increasing speculation that the Mexican is on the shortlist of drivers to eventually replace Felipe Massa.

Speaking about a possible future at Ferrari, Perez said: "I think there is room for me to do well where I am and that's my current target. It's impossible to say how things will go.

"My dream is to become world champion and it would be nice if it could happen with a team like this one. I have got a lot out of this time with the Ferrari Driver Academy. The work on the simulator and the meetings with the engineers are all things that will help me over the rest of the season and in general in the future."

Ferrari also gave Jules Bianchi a run in the F60, with his best effort after 70 laps being 1m00.213s - although he was on a different testing programme to Perez.

"We did a lot of laps and once again it was a very useful experience for me," said Bianchi. "These laps all count a lot towards the future I'd like to have in Formula 1.

"Now, I'm looking forward to the young driver test in Abu Dhabi and it will be very interesting to go from the 2009 car to the 2011 one, as it will be a good opportunity for me to try elements like DRS and KERS for the very first time."

Renault has been given the green light to begin construction of a new simulator facility at its Enstone factory.

Local authorities have approved planning permission for the new building, which will be situated next to the team's windtunnel.

Team principal Eric Boullier is confident that Renault's technology should be as good as any of its rivals' - having agreed a design deal with McLaren and having Red Bull Racing's former simulator chief on board to help with development.

"Our simulator should be ready in March," said Boullier. "We are building it ourselves. We have some technology help from McLaren and I have a guy working for me now who was previously the head of simulator at Red Bull. I think he knows what he is talking about - so we have the best of everything."

Although the McLaren tie-up means that it will be given a design for a simulator similar to that in Woking, Renault still has to work on its own constructions and the software for it.

Full details of the Renault simulator planning application can be found here.

Boullier has also said his team is on the verge of extending its engine partnership with Renault, despite having been linked with Cosworth earlier this year.

"We are very close, but I cannot tell you more," he said. "We have a historical relationship, we have a close technical relationship and there is [oil sponsor] Total mixed in the middle of this, so there are some commercial reasons why we should stick with Renault."

When asked about the Cosworth situation, Boullier said: "You always have to have a B-plan and a C-plan, and yes we have been approached by Cosworth, because they have lost customers. They are talking to everyone in the pitlane I guess, or nearly everybody, but there are no plans so far."

Boullier also suggested that a KERS technology share plan being put together between all the Renault-powered teams was dependent on his outfit.

"We own some of the IP on the KERS because we have designed it. The know-how is in Enstone, and we are discussing transferring it all together to make the best overall unit."

HRT team boss Colin Kolles is optimistic that his squad could be more of a threat to nearest rivals Virgin and Lotus in Singapore as it introduces upgrades.

The team had hoped it might gain on the cars ahead in Italy after promising times in Friday practice, but ended up qualifying on the back row and then enduring a troubled race that saw Daniel Ricciardo join late after mechanical problems at the start and Tonio Liuzzi cause a first-corner pile-up.

Kolles said the target for Singapore was to get both cars to the flag, but that he hoped HRT could display more speed in Marina Bay as well.

"We are bringing some updates on the aero side like a modified engine cover and a new underfloor that we hope will help us to close the gap to our rivals," he said.

"Last year we couldn't make it to the end but this time, with everybody's effort, I am sure we can hope for a two-car finish in Singapore next Sunday."

He added that he expected that Liuzzi - who must take a five-place grid penalty as a punishment for triggering the Monza carnage - would make up for the error in Singapore, and that Ricciardo's lack of circuit knowledge was not a concern.

"After the disappointment of Monza, we are ready to move on and I am sure that both drivers will do their best to put in a good performance," Kolles said.

"We expect Tonio to take the most out of his experience and push the car and the team, while Daniel should keep on improving and take another step forward on a track that he has never raced before."

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh believes the potential for DRS use and his drivers' determination to topple Red Bull will turn next weekend's Singapore Grand Prix into an "electrifying" race.

Previous Singapore events have seen a lack of overtaking at the front of the field - with Ferrari's Fernando Alonso able to hold off Sebastian Vettel's faster Red Bull for much of the distance last year - but Whitmarsh expects DRS to have a major impact in Marina Bay.

AUTOSPORT understands that the DRS detection point will be set after Turn 3, on the way out of the circuit's twisty opening complex. Notification is expected to be in the Turn 5 braking zone and activation on the exit of Turn 5, allowing DRS use on the long kinked straight towards Turn 7.

Although Vettel and Red Bull returned to winning ways in Belgium and Italy, McLaren remains convinced that it had the pace to beat the champion on both occasions, with Jenson Button having come from 13th on the grid to third at Spa and from seventh place after a poor start back to second at Monza.

"We go to Singapore feeling very encouraged about our performance potential," said Whitmarsh. "I also think we're set to continue the trend we've witnessed so far this season, with DRS enlivening races that hitherto would have been somewhat processional.

"At Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, the reality is that we're fortunate enough to have two drivers who are never satisfied to merely sit behind another car; but the addition of DRS means that we should expect some truly electrifying racing this weekend.

"The track is wide enough to support close and exciting wheel-to-wheel racing and I sincerely hope that's what we see this weekend."

Button revealed that the Singapore night race was high up his list of 'must win' races, and believes McLaren's pace on tighter tracks so far this year bodes well.

"This is one of the races I'd most love to win and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to show the same sort of pace that we showed at Monaco and Hungary, where I had two of my best drives of the year," he said.

His team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who won in Singapore in 2009, also believes McLaren can get back on top next weekend.

"I think we had a car capable of winning in both Belgium and Italy, so I really want to make sure we arrive in Singapore with a good set-up, and that we're able to run with it through practice and qualifying," said Hamilton. "If it all goes to plan, we should be in good shape on Sunday.

"Even though the title is now almost out of reach I'll be pushing hard for the best possible result. I will never give up and I'll be driving to win as always."

Pirelli has nominated the tyre compounds for the Japanese and Korean Grands Prix, and has elected to take different approaches for the two races.

With the Suzuka circuit putting high demands on tyres, thanks to fast corners like Spoon and 130R, Pirelli has chosen to bring the medium and soft compounds for that race.

For Korea, which is much slower and has a lower-grip surface, Pirelli will take the soft and supersoft tyres - the same nominations used in Monaco, Canada, Hungary and Singapore.

Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery said: "After careful analysis of all the data we have available, we have come up with what we believe to be the nominations that are best suited to the characteristics of each circuit.

"While Suzuka is a track that we've competed on before, both in GT racing and on motorbikes, Korea is a circuit that most people are still learning about. Nonetheless, we benefit from advanced simulation technology that allows us to accurately predict the likely behaviour of each tyre even on tracks that we have never seen before.

"The extra performance of the supersoft makes it one of the most dynamic tyres in our range, which will form a key part of the strategy in Korea. Before then, the combination of medium and soft that will be used in Japan was last seen on our home grand prix in Italy, resulting in an extremely exciting race."

Renault technical director James Allison admits he is 'apprehensive' about the chances for his team at the Singapore Grand Prix - but reckons a good performance would put it in great stead for the remainder of the campaign.

The Enstone-based team is due to introduce the second phase of an upgrade that arrived for the Italian GP, and is buoyed by the fact that it has turned around a mid-season slump in pace.

However, with Renault having struggled on low-speed, high-downforce tracks so far this year, Allison is not expecting an easy time in Singapore.

"Monaco and Hungary were not good races for us and Singapore shares some characteristics of these two circuits," he said. "We feel we have improved things since then and we have a bit more to deliver for Singapore itself, but it is fair to say that I am apprehensive.

"However, if we do have a good race then we will be set for good performances in the five races that follow, as we will then have shown improved performance on three very different tracks."

Allison says that with developments having flowed steadily for the past two races, there are reasons to be encouraged by the fact that Renault appears to have turned the corner in its campaign.

"While far from stunning, it was at least respectable," he said about the pace at Monza. "For two races in a row our car has looked a little more on the pace than in the previous grands prix, and this reinforces our belief that we are heading back in the right direction."

Allison has also once again praised the job that Bruno Senna has done since his promotion to race driver - which included him scoring his maiden Formula 1 points in Italy.

"Several promising F1 careers have foundered on the rocks of a mid-season introduction in recent year," he explained.

"Under the current F1 rules Bruno has had no meaningful chance to get up to speed in the car away from the pressures of the GP weekend. He had just one session in the R31 pre-season, and he has impressed all of us with the way that he has seized his opportunity first at Spa and again at Monza."

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HRT has officially confirmed that Narain Karthikeyan will make his anticipated return to a race seat for the Indian Grand Prix.

Karthikeyan will also be back in the car for Friday practice at next weekend's Singapore GP in preparation for his home race.

"Of course it's a great feeling to be driving on a grand prix weekend once again, and on the subject of my home Grand Prix of India, the team had assured me that I'd be driving when I stepped out of my seat after the European GP," said Karthikeyan.

The 34-year-old Indian lost his HRT race drive to Red Bull protege Daniel Ricciardo before Silverstone, but it was always understood that he would get another chance at India's inaugural Formula 1 on 30 October. This was underlined when Karthikeyan concluded sponsorship deals for racing at the event.

He has remained part of the HRT operation and ran in Friday practice at the Nurburgring in July.

Team boss Colin Kolles said the Singapore outing was to ensure Karthikeyan was not too rusty when he reclaimed his race seat for India.

"It is great to have Narain back in the car as it will give him critical seat time before he drives at the Indian GP," Kolles said.

"He is the best driver to come out of the region and is undoubtedly extremely talented as he has proved through his progress this season."

Ricciardo told AUTOSPORT that he expected to be the one to move aside for Karthikeyan in India, rather than his team-mate Vitantonio Liuzzi.

Sebastian Vettel's spectacular overtaking move on Fernando Alonso to take the lead of last week's Italian Grand Prix is proof that he wants to win the world championship in style, according to Red Bull chief technical officer Adrian Newey.

The German passed Alonso at the exit of Curva Grande on the fifth lap at Monza, running onto the grass at an estimated 160mph to make the move. Newey believes that Vettel could have waited until the first round of pitstops to pass the Ferrari driver, but that the runaway world championship leader was happy to take the lead the hard way.

"Sebastian doesn't want to cruise to the world championship, he really wants to earn it," Newey told AUTOSPORT. "That's what you saw at Monza. It was a ballsy move.

"We knew it was going to be difficult for Seb to retake the lead. Ultimately, there was always going to be an opportunity to achieve that in the pitstops with the power of the undercut. But if we couldn't do it on the undercut, it was going to be difficult."

Newey also paid tribute to Vettel's ever-improving abilities, insisting that the 24-year-old has now proved his critics wrong.

He has no doubts that Vettel, who can seal his second successive world championship title in Singapore next Sunday, has demonstrated his overtaking prowess beyond doubt in recent races.

"What's so impressive about him is that he very rarely makes the same mistake twice," said Newey. "He learns and he keeps confounding the critics.

"Last year, people were saying he's great if he gets out in the lead but he can't overtake people. People won't be saying that after the last few races."

Formula 1's finances will not be hurt by the cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix, after the sport's commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone revealed on Monday that the race organisers still paid for the event.

The Bahrain GP was dropped as the 2011 season-opener in the wake of political troubles in the Gulf state, and attempts to get it reinstated later in the campaign failed after teams complained of logistical problems.

Although there were suggestions earlier in the year that Ecclestone would return the race sanctioning fee, believed to be around £25 million, he has now said that the Bahrainis were happy for it to remain in F1's coffers.

Speaking to the Independent, Ecclestone said: "I don't think turnover will be down this year. I think it will be flat because we were paid for Bahrain. I said we will give them the money back and they said don't bother. I think the turnover and profit will be more or less the same as 2010."

The Bahrain GP has been given an April slot in next year's calendar, even though there remain reports of ongoing clashes between police and protesters in the Gulf island state.

Ecclestone said he was hopeful, however, that the event would not need to be dropped again.

"I spoke to the Bahrainis yesterday and they said everything is going to be fine. I hope they are right for their sake, not ours."

Looking longer term, Ecclestone also suggested that his next targets for races are Mexico and South Africa.

"After Russia I would like to go to South Africa and Mexico. Both countries are trying to do something," he said.

Formula 1 chiefs need to do more to look after the interests of race promoters, claims former world champion Damon Hill, as tracks struggle to juggle the finances of hosting grands prix.

Hill has first-hand experience of the difficulties that race organisers face through his experience as the president of Silverstone's owner the British Racing Drivers' Club. He stepped down from that role recently.

With more and more European races finding it hard to balance the books due to increased sanctioning fees, Hill feels that something needs to change to prevent the traditional events being lost from the calendar.

"I am concerned how promoted events survive with the demands of F1," Hill told AUTOSPORT. "I think F1 would do itself a lot of good if it thought about how circuits survive, and how promoted events survive, in what is really an important place in the world for this sport.

"I am not talking about places that have not had F1 races before; I am talking about places that have always had them. If you keep sucking out too much then eventually you break it."

Hill believes that more should be done for the fan in the grandstand, rather than the sport pushing so hard to improve facilities for corporate guests.

"There is a balance to find between the VIP level, the people who pay for the sport, the sponsors, but there is a point where you have to give the ordinary fan access to the sport and a feeling of getting repaid for their devotion.

"Football has had the same issue and, if you have stadia, a proportion has to go to affordable seating."

When asked if he had any worries that race attendance numbers at Silverstone next year could be hit on the back of fans needing to pay to follow coverage of F1 on Sky, Hill said: "I don't think anyone knows the answer to this question - whether people will pay the money, not pay the money, whether it will affect viewing figures.

"I think it will certainly affect the peak viewing numbers but it may not affect live events. England has always had a very strong following for motorsport: people like to touch it, smell it, hear it and will come to the track."

Renault may have endured a challenging 2011 campaign after falling away from the podium-finishing pace that it started the season with, but team principal Eric Boullier says he has reason to feel genuinely optimistic that the team can return to form next year.

Boullier says his confidence for the future is based on the fact that Renault has managed to arrest its decline this year - with recent updates to the car pushing it back into regular Q3 contention after a mid-season struggle.

With further updates set to be added to the R31 at this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix, and the team now benefiting from a mid-season windtunnel upgrade, Boullier thinks his outfit has the potential once again to push itself nearer the front of the grid.

"To be transparent with you, my first little happiness this year was that we were capable of producing a car at the beginning of the season that was able to fight for podiums," Boullier said, when asked by AUTOSPORT about his feelings on Renault's current plight. "That means that at home we have enough engineering and know-how to produce something good.

"Now, we understand why we could not catch up on the development speed, but I am confident that next year we will again be delivering a good car.

"And, on top of this, we have isolated different parameters that will make us better – and clearly delivering much better now in 60 per cent [scale windtunnel]. So I am very positive to be honest."

Renault has made solid progress after delivering an aggressive update programme since the German GP in July – although the biggest steps have come in the last few events.

Boullier says that a further improvement should come in Singapore this weekend – with parts that failed to be ready in time for the last race in Italy being available this time.

"We didn't bring the full upgrade we had planned for Italy because of production reasons, which means the biggest upgrade parts will be in Singapore," he explained.

"I don't know how much they will be worth, but two tenths [of a second] maybe. They will also change the way that we have to set up the car, so they could be worth even more."

Reflecting on the fact that the team was able to turn around its slip from form during 2011, with the low point being its worst qualifying performance of the year at Silverstone, Boullier said: "I am sort of relieved that we have been able to bounce back in performance.

"Definitely to have another upgrade coming in Singapore will be another help, so it is good to keep contact with the teams ahead of us, especially Mercedes. Now we have to seize our opportunities."

Williams will evaluate a new front wing and diffuser changes in Friday practice at the Singapore Grand Prix as it strives to improve its performance.

The team is currently ninth in the constructors' championship, with just three points finishes to its name all season. Rubens Barrichello's ninth places in Monaco and Canada are its best results of 2011 so far.

Technical director Sam Michael will leave the team after Singapore, ready for a new role as McLaren's sporting director from 2012. He said Williams was continuing to push forward with developments to try and get out of its current plight.

"We have an upgraded diffuser and a new front wing assembly for the first of the flyaways," he said. "We'll test both of them on Friday."

Pastor Maldonado was able to run sixth in the last race at Monza following a fast start and a safe passage through the first-corner collision. But his pace was not strong enough to hang on to that position and he fell to 11th. He hopes that the revised car will allow him to be more competitive in Singapore - especially as he has a reputation as a street circuit specialist.

"I really like street circuits so I think I can be quick there," said Maldonado.

"We have some upgrades for this race that we hope will be a big improvement and help us better our last result."

Team Lotus will introduce a new floor at this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix as it bids to keep hold of its 10th position in the constructors' championship.

The Hingham-based outfit's three 13th-place finishes so far this year have put it ahead of HRT and Virgin Racing, and if it holds on to 10th spot until the end of the year it will net the team a big financial payout from commercial rights income.

Chief technical officer Mike Gascoyne has high hopes that the upgrades planned for this weekend will deliver a good step, and help it fight off the challenge of its nearest rivals.

"We approach Singapore in much the same way we do Monaco," he said in a team preview on Monday. "We will be running with a maximum downforce package with a new floor and diffuser and bigger front brake ducts to cope with the brake cooling demands.

"The numbers from the windtunnel look pretty promising for the update to the floor so we will see what we have found when we get out on track."

Team principal Tony Fernandes is still holding out hope that the outfit can net its maiden points finish at some point this year.

"We have shown throughout the year that our guys are ready to take on whatever lies ahead of them, deal with it and keep learning and progressing," he said.

"One of the most pleasing aspects for me over the last couple of races has been to see the improvements in the garage and on the pitwall that have seen us perform quicker pitstops, turn the cars around during and in-between sessions more quickly and efficiently, and make the right strategic calls at the right time."

He added: "While we are working very hard behind the scenes to put all the pieces in place for the next phase of our growth, the team is working equally hard under intense pressure at the races and back at the factory and it makes me very proud to see how far they have already come."

[Katsuya]

KIMI MIGHT BE COMING BACK

[Lineker]

I'm all for the return of the Ice-man, but there will be some serious hell to pay if it comes at the expense of Rubens!!

Rubens Barrichello says he is not going to waste time worrying about losing his place in Formula 1, amid mounting speculation that Kimi Raikkonen is pushing to replace him at Williams next year.

It is understood that Raikkonen visited the Williams factory ahead of the Italian Grand Prix for talks with the team, as the former world champion eyes a return to racing in 2012.

Although sources suggest that Williams is chasing a sponsor-backed driver to be team-mate to Pastor Maldonado in 2012, a tie-up with Raikkonen could also be financially attractive because it could lure fresh backers.

Williams has so far declined to comment on the Raikkonen situation, and confirmed only that the Finn paid a 'private' visit to the factory recently for unspecified reasons.

Barrichello is keen to remain at the outfit in 2012, and said he was not getting distracted by the suggestions that Raikkonen is keen to land an F1 return with Williams.

"Right now is a big time for rumours and there is no point," said Barrichello ahead of the Singapore GP. "My Twitter [account] is going crazy with people asking things.

"Whatever people say about me is not true, so I cannot rely on other information about other drivers. Whenever I meet with my family, they ask me crazy things that they read in the press. To say something now will make more fuss.

"But definitely I want to be racing next year. That's my point. I feel better prepared than at any other time."

He added: "Williams has unfortunately not given me a good car yet and the moving forward means that we should stick together with a good and better car next year.

"There are a lot of changes and the less changes you make on the driver side, the more opportunity you get. A good example is Ferrari - they do better because if they have good drivers they continue.

"I have had a fantastic 19 years [in F1] and I want to do my 20th. If everything goes well, I will do my 20th."

Maldonado's place at Williams next year is assured, thanks to the team's sponsorship contract with Venezuelan oil company PDVSA.

AUTOSPORT understands that next year's deal could be worth between £21 million and £29.4 million depending on the level of logo exposure PDVSA has on the car.

Other drivers believed to be on Williams' shortlist for next year who have funds behind them include Bruno Senna, Adrian Sutil and Giedo van der Garde.

McLaren has not been subdued by its struggles to compete with Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel this season and aims to continue the fight over the next six races.

Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton lie 117 and 126 points respectively off Vettel in the drivers' championship, while McLaren trails Red Bull by 126 points in the constructors'.

Both drivers have taken two wins apiece, but have suffered their share of mistakes and misfortune, handing Vettel the chance to take his second consecutive world championship crown as early as Singapore this weekend.

Managing director Jonathan Neale says that while the team is dissatisfied with that situation, it is far too early to stop development of the 2011 car and says the next six races present six more 'opportunities to win.'

"We sit here having amassed a number of race wins, having put up at times a very creditable fight and we continue to do that until the end of the season," Neale explained during a Vodafone phone-in.

"Of course we would very much like to be where Vettel finds himself at the moment, and we look to ourselves to do a better job, because we are not satisfied with coming runners-up.

"We are not in any way disheartened, downbeat or anything other than determined to win races before now and next year, however.

"We're looking at it as six more races though, and six more opportunities to win. Winning is why we are here, races as well as championships, and its too early for us to bail out completely."

With Ferrari saying its 2011 struggles meant resources were almost exclusively being switched to 2012, Neale said McLaren would also switch some resources, but would continue to work on the 2011 challenger in the belief it would also prove beneficial for next year.

"We're determined to start next year with a car that's quick and reliable from the outset," he said.

"Of course the emphasis in the team is starting to move out of necessity: with a long race season that goes until the end of November it is just not possible to put 100 per cent of your resource onto the programme for this year without doing something for next year.

"It's also possible, and I'm sure despite what Ferrari has said, that much of the development on this year's car is carry over know-how for next year. It's an evolutionary set of rules - it's still very possible to get performance on this year's car and generate know-how for next year."

Formula 1's ruling body has confirmed a single DRS zone for this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix.

The FIA announced on Wednesday that the DRS detection zone will be placed at Turn 4, with the activation zone right after Turn 5 and ahead of the longest straight of the Marina Bay circuit, as revealed by AUTOSPORT last week.

It is hoped the DRS zone will help boost overtaking on a track where it was been very hard in the past.

This way Formula 1 reverts to a single DRS zone after having used two at the Italian Grand Prix last week.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen will return to the stewards panel for this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix, the FIA has announced.

The former grand prix driver raced for Sauber, Williams, Jordan, Prost and Arrows during his Formula 1 career, which started in 1994 and ended in 2003.

Frentzen had already acted as a driver steward during last year's European Grand Prix in Valencia.

Fernando Alonso says he has his sights set on another victory at the Singapore Grand Prix, even if the Ferrari driver concedes it will be difficult.

Alonso has won at the Marina Bay circuit twice - in 2008 and 2010 - with a third place in the 2009 race making it one of the Spaniard's best tracks.

The Ferrari driver, second in the standings behind Sebastian Vettel, reckons beating the German this year will be very hard, but he is determined to try and extend his run of success in Singapore.

The two-time champion believes the circuit should suit his car, just like Monaco did earlier this season.

"I have always managed to make the podium in the three previous editions and my objective is to make it four out of four," said Alonso on Ferrari's website.

"A third victory to go with those of 2008 and last year would clearly be fantastic but I know that it will be very hard.

"At Monaco we certainly came very close to victory - without the final red flag I think I would have had an excellent chance to overtake Sebastian – but it's also true that you can't always guarantee that things go the same way.

"What is certain is that we will give everything: I think we have the chance to do well as long as we get the best out of every aspect: tyres, set-up, engine, teamwork, everything has to be at 100 per cent."

He added: "We hope to repeat the weekend of 2010 and thus to present another victory to the Prancing Horse and to all our fans. That is our target, one that will remain for all the coming races."

[Lineker]

Adrian Sutil is prepared to wait it out for a final decision from Force India about a contract for next year, after rubbishing speculation that he visited Williams recently for talks with the Grove-based outfit.

Force India has said it will wait until December to decide on its driver line-up for 2012, which means its current drivers could be left in limbo if they are not kept onboard and other seats are already taken.

Sutil said in Singapore on Thursday, however, that he is relaxed about his situation - and he dismissed rumours that he was in talks with Williams after reports suggested that both he and Kimi Raikkonen have recently visited the factory.

"I didn't go there. I wasn't there. I have no contacts with them," said Sutil when asked by AUTOSPORT about the Williams rumours.

Sutil insisted he was not worried by Force India holding back on a decision – and reckoned his best tactic was simply to concentrate on doing the best job possible.

"At this moment it is difficult to see where is possible," he said. "The team is very good here; it is doing a good performance. I know the team for a long time, so whatever I do I have to think twice if it is a good next step.

"The top teams are all closed anyway, the top four, so maybe there is no reason to change. I am just concentrated on my race, and see where it goes. I have no plans.

"The team wants wait until December and they don't want to tell who will be in the seat, otherwise they wouldn't wait so long.

"Whatever I do now, I have to be fast and I have to score some points. Then hopefully it is enough for them to say yes, he deserves another year with us, or not. If I do my races as I can, as good as possible, then I will get a seat."

Sutil also made it clear that his future was not dependent on backing from personal sponsor Medion.

"I have always had a good couple of sponsors. They have been with me from the beginning, that is important, but I don't need sponsors to survive in F1."

Force India pairing Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil are refusing to become complacent despite Force India now holding the sixth place in the constructors' championship that it has targeted since the start of the season.

The Silverstone-based team started the year with a car that was at heart an evolution of its 2010 machine, but ran a radically changed aerodynamic concept for the first time during practice for the Spanish Grand Prix.

Since then, its form has improved and it has climbed from eighth in the standings before the Monaco Grand Prix to sixth after the Italian Grand Prix.

But with Sauber one point behind and Scuderia Toro Rosso only seven points down, di Resta believes that the battle will go down to the wire. This is despite Force India being on strong form, scoring 24 points in the last four races compared to 12 for Toro Rosso and only two for Sauber.

"Last year, the team was fighting all season to get sixth place and lost it by a point," said di Resta when asked by AUTOSPORT whether the position was now within the team's grasp. "It would be rather harsh if that happened again.

"We were the chasing ones and now we have caught up and overtaken [Toro Rosso and Sauber]. We have shown good performance, although Sauber were strong in Monza until the cars stopped. We know that this is going to be a fight all the way.

"Some cars seem to work some places and some don't. But we have changed our car philosophy, and it's a philosophy that has got us a lot of points this year and which will work better on the tracks coming up from now."

Team-mate Sutil, who has scored points in five out of 13 races this year, pointed to Sauber as Force India's main rival.

Despite Force India now having the stronger car in qualifying, he believes that that the fight between the two outfits in race conditions is close.

"It is tight, so we have to push on," said Sutil. "We have the better car in qualifying, but Sauber still looks quite strong in the race. That equals it all out a little bit. "We have no reason to relax because it is so close. We are one point ahead at the moment, so have to keep pushing to the end.

Felipe Massa is hopeful Ferrari will enjoy a stronger weekend in Singapore than it has in the previous races.

The Italian squad was unable to fight for victory in Spa and Monza, as Red Bull opened the gap in part thanks to the nature of the circuits.

But with the Marina Bay track being similar to Monaco, where Ferrari looked strong, Massa is hoping to reduce the gap to the leaders.

"I hope it will definitely be better than how it was the last races," said Massa. "We were not so competitive, so I hope we can be more competitive here.

"It is really nothing to do with the Monza track in terms of everything - corners, straights, downforce, so even tyres, I hope our car can behave even better here. For sure we don't have really many things new on the car, but it is a different track so I hope we can see a more competitive car.

"The expectation is always to be better, but we need to wait and see. It is a different track, a different everything – many places where we expected not to be good we were, and other places where we expected to be good we were not, so it is difficult to say. We just wait and see how it is going to be here."

Despite just one win this year, Massa is adamant Ferrari has made a lot of progress during the season, and says he has been unlucky in the last races.

"We improve during the season, we didn't start in a great direction, especially in qualifying, but the performance improved a lot.

"But I was not very, very lucky in the races, the last two races – in Spa we had a problem with the tyres and in the last race I had a little push from another car, and it is true that we were not very, very lucky, but let's concentrate and keep the same direction for qualifying, try to improve even more for that, try to have the right race from the beginning to the end without anything in the middle."

Fernando Alonso says Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull deserve to be in the position they are in after a close to perfect season so far for the German.

Vettel, winner of eight races so far this year, could clinch his second title in Singapore this weekend if the results favour him.

The Red Bull driver is 112 points ahead of Alonso with six races to go.

The Ferrari driver conceded Vettel has been the best this year and insists that, even with the best car, the German has proved to be very strong in all circumstances.

"He's driving fantastically," Alonso told reporters in Singapore. "I think this year he has made no mistakes or very few mistakes. Last year we had a bigger chance. I think the Red Bull was very dominant also last year but had some trouble in some races.

"This year they improved all those problems. The car is as quick as last year. He has finished all the races. I think he's the only driver who has finished all the races, and plus he's driving very, very well.

"When you have a dominant car it's easy to get a pole position or win a race, but there's been some occasions this year when the conditions were very tricky like Canada or Silverstone and he managed to pull a perfect lap in qualifying and a perfect race from the start to the end.

"So in general he has been the best driver, and the best team and the best package, so they deserve to be where they are."

When asked if he had given up on his hopes to win the title this year, Alonso said: "Yes".

Alonso, who has won in Singapore twice in three years, is adamant Ferrari will be strong this weekend, but concedes beating Red Bull and McLaren will not be easy.

"Singapore is one of our best opportunities in the remaining races because the characteristics of the circuit are similar to Monte Carlo, where we were quite competitive there.

"And we have the soft and the super soft tyres, a combination that we like more. So it should be a good weekend for us, but victory is never easy, never close enough when we are fighting with Red Bull and McLaren. So it's going to be tough but hopefully closer than in some other places."

Vitantonio Liuzzi remains confident in HRT's long-term prospects despite the team parting company with technical director Geoff Willis.

Willis is no longer working for HRT, with former Honda/Brawn deputy technical director Jorg Zander expected to be confirmed as his successor.

But despite this change, Liuzzi has no doubts that HRT's aspirations to establish itself as a competitive Formula 1 team will be realised.

"It's a shame that we lost Geoff because I was working well with him," Liuzzi told AUTOSPORT. "But the team principal [Colin Kolles] has got a clear picture in his head and I am confident that it is the right plan.

"We still don't know much about how the future will be handled, but I'm very confident that Mr Kolles is putting together a good package for the future.

"This is a circus where people come and go pretty quickly, it's the same for drivers and for engineers. I'm sure that the team is facing a brighter future."

The Italian, who is hopeful of staying with the team for a second season in 2012, is also impressed with team owner Thesan Capital's plans, which he expects will allow HRT to make a stride forward next year.

"The new owners have strong ideas about the future, so that makes me feel positive," said Liuzzi. "Because it is always better to have owners that want to invest and push the team forward.

"The biggest step needs to be made next year and we will still do it, but with a different [technical] package."

Sebastian Vettel insists he has not won anything yet and claims he is in no rush to secure his second title as long as he manages to clinch it.

The Red Bull driver has a 112-point advantage over Ferrari's Fernando Alonso with six races to go and has his first chance to secure the title in Singapore this weekend.

Vettel made it clear on Thursday, however, that his goal is to do the best possible job this weekend, without thinking about the possible scenarios that would make him a double world champion.

"Would, could, should... so far we haven't won anything," Vettel said in Singapore on Thursday. "We are in a good position but still have some way to go. We have to race and doing our normal job, try to achieve our best.

"It is one of the most difficult tracks for cars and drivers, it is a long way to the chequered flag.

"Obviously a lot of people talk about it, but certain things have to happen. It reminds me of the situation we faced in Abu Dhabi last year, where people came up every two/three minutes giving another option, what is possible out of 1,147 options.

"This could be one, that is not the objective or target this weekend - the target is to optimise our performance.

"Generally our target going into this season was to defend the title. We are in a very good position and there is no reason the target should change. It doesn't matter when, it matters that it happens."

The world champion said there is no added pressure to clinch the title in Singapore, but admitted he will go for it if he has the chance.

"I think there is always pressure on me and us because we want to achieve our best every single weekend, and achieve our maximum," he added.

"If there is a possibility or a chance to win we want to go for it. I don't feel any extra pressure trying to win the championship here or win it in one particular place. We just have to remind ourselves what the target was going into the season, it was not to win the championship in Singapore, it was to win the championship itself."

And the German said it was hard to predict who will be strongest this weekend, but he believes the battle with Ferrari and McLaren will be very tight.

"It will be a long weekend, a very long race, it is nearly two hours, longer than the other races we have during the season. Ferrari were competitive last year, we were equally matched but couldn't get past on the track. Hopefully this year is the other way around.

"On this circuit it's hard to predict who is going to be competitive. I think we will be fighting McLaren and Ferrari, but Mercedes could have a good chance here. It is a circuit where the car is important but the driver can make a difference."

Sebastian Vettel says Fernando Alonso's defence at the Italian Grand Prix was "borderline", but the German made it clear the Spaniard had given him just enough room to pass.

Vettel pulled a superb move over Alonso in the early stages of the Monza race, taking the lead after putting two wheels on the grass to pass the Ferrari ahead of the second chicane.

Although Vettel said Alonso gave him just enough room to pass, he conceded the move was right on the limit.

"I think he didn't expect me to go on the left, so I was trying to go on inside for the second chicane," explained Vettel. "Initially he didn't see me but as soon as he saw me he didn't back off but he pulled to the right and gave me enough room.

"It was borderline. I knew if I had to get past I had to do something. It was more critical the lap before, when he moved under braking and there wasn't much room.

"We talked about it after the race and it is fine. Generally if you race someone like Fernando, who has experience and you respect a lot, you can push the limits and go wheel to wheel without thinking about, because they know you are there and they will give you room, not a lot, but enough."

Vettel also suggested Michael Schumacher's defence from Lewis Hamilton was questionable at points, the German having been criticised by some for his driving during the race.

"I think it was fun to watch! That is one thing. Whether it was too hard or not... It is very easy for us to understand Lewis' frustrations if you are behind and knowing you can go quicker and you stuck because of ratios and the other car is quicker on the straights.

"I saw the race and one move was arguably too much, out of the first chicane where Lewis tried with the speed he had, it looked like Michael didn't see him, but I don't know."

Rubens Barrichello has backed McLaren's decision to recruit outgoing Williams technical supremo Sam Michael as sporting director for next season.

Michael attends his final race for Williams in Singapore this weekend and Barrichello, who has been a close ally of the Australian over the past 18 months, believes that McLaren will benefit hugely from the decision to bring him into the team.

"McLaren has a lot to gain," said Barrichello. "I'm very happy for him.

"He is a very competitive guy and I think that his role at Williams was overcharged. It was hard for him to smile because he was doing too many things.

"He is very competent at anything that he turns his hand to and it will to be McLaren's benefit to make his job easier. He will have some time to rest and to cool down [before he joins McLaren] and I'm sure that he will do very well there."

Mark Gillan, who has joined Williams as chief operations engineer, is attending the Singapore Grand Prix to shadow Michael.

Along with Mike Coughlan, who joined the team as chief engineer and is Michael's de facto successor as technical director, Barrichello is confident that the workload at Williams will be better shared in the future.

"No," he said when asked by AUTOSPORT whether this problem would be repeated with the team's new technical line-up. "They have divided it better."

Lewis Hamilton has labelled Sebastian Vettel's performance this season as "exceptional", as the German edges closer to his second title.

"I think he has been exceptional this year," said Hamilton on Thursday in Singapore.

"He has really driven really, really well. He has finished first and second in all the races, apart from one, so massively consistent, massively well controlled.

"His persona, his attitude I think has been very professional, he has made very few mistakes - and even the two small mistakes have not been very costly. So I take my hat off to him – I think he has done fantastically well."

Vettel, last year's world champion, has scored eight victories this season and has finished on the podium 12 times in 13 races.

Hamilton's team-mate Jenson Button also hailed Vettel's season, claiming the German has driven a lot better than last year, whe he feels the Red Bull driver made too many mistakes.

"I said last year before he won the championship that I didn't think he would win, because he made too many mistakes," said Button. "That it my opinion, obviously he will not agree with that, but this year he has driven really well.

"More than his speed, he has made a lot less mistakes, he looks very confident in the car he is driving.

"You don't win a world championship in a bad car, you win a championship in a good car, but he has got a great car underneath and has done the perfect job with it."

Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he deliberately chose not to criticise Michael Schumacher over his defensive driving in the Italian Grand Prix, because he wanted to avoid getting involved in a war-of-words with his rival.

Schumacher and Hamilton were locked in battle for much of the race at Monza, and opinions have varied on whether or not the German went too far in trying to hold onto his place.

Hamilton had brushed aside questions about Schumacher in the immediate aftermath of the Monza race, and said in Singapore that that had been a deliberate tactic.

"I was disappointed that I couldn't do better in the race. I was just keeping my mouth shut," he said. "It has done me a lot of good. I have been relaxed the last few days and not had too many problems."

He added: "I think you [the media] are constantly asking me what lessons I have learned, and that is one lesson I was able to apply that day. Because I am very, very passionate, and very open, and very blunt with the things I say.

"And because I am not scared to say what I feel, it can be used against me - and at that time I was able to control myself. And that is what life is about, being in control."

Hamilton suggested that Schumacher had broken the one-move defending rule during their battle at Monza – but said he did not wish to take the matter any further.

"I believe it is only one move, you have to stick with it. You are not allowed to go back," said Hamilton, who was given a reprimand earlier this year for his defensive driving against Fernando Alonso in Malaysia.

"In Malaysia I wasn't blocking, I was two or three car lengths ahead of Fernando – and I was trying to break the tow because it has such long straights.

"I was breaking the tow and, in my opinion, the rules say you are only allowed to make one manoeuvre when defending. I wasn't defending; I was just trying to break the tow, which is why I did it.

"But Michael was defending so it was a little bit of a different situation, but it has not been clarified. Constantly they are saying you are only allowed to do one manoeuvre."

When asked if he was going to seek clarification of the matter from the FIA, Hamilton said: "I am generally quite clear. Now after Malaysia and I got a penalty, I am clear I am not allowed to try and break the tow. And I am also clear that under braking I can only make one manoeuvre and not go back, and I don't need to ask any questions. I know that. If I was to do that manoeuvre I would get a penalty, so I wouldn't do that."

Schumacher played down the matter when asked in Singapore about the events at Monza.

Questioned about if he was surprised team principal Ross Brawn had to order him over the radio to leave room for Hamilton, Schumacher said: "No, I was not surprised. I think it was good that Ross came on the radio, simply to confirm that we had been operating on the edge and to be careful. It was an exciting one that the majority enjoyed and so did I."

McLaren made too many mistakes this year to be able to launch a serious title challenge against Red Bull Racing, reckons Jenson Button.

With Sebastian Vettel on the verge of clinching his second world title, Button thinks that his outfit failed to capitalise on the opportunities it had throughout 2011 to win more races.

"Seb has got a great car underneath him and has done the perfect job with it," said Button in Singapore. "When someone is in that form and the car is working like that and the team doesn't make mistakes, it is very hard to beat them when you don't have one of those aspects.

"For us, we have made too many mistakes this year and we haven't quite got it together on a race weekend, even when we have had the performance. So that is something we have got to work on, and something we are working on.

"If you look at the last few races, if everything had gone well then we would have had a really good chance of fighting Seb for the win. But we haven't done a good enough job. He has done a very good job this year and I am sure he is proud to be world champion, which I am sure he will be in the next few races."

Button believes that Red Bull Racing has benefited from being well-resourced, which is why the team has been able to maintain its form throughout the campaign - unlike during his title campaign when Brawn GP fell back over the course of the year.

"They have the resources that we never had," said Button. "We were not able to really develop the car throughout the year I won the championship. That is why we could not be consistent.

"With Red Bull, they have resources to keep developing the car. And their reliability has been amazing this year. Their first non-points scoring race this year was Mark and that is because he crashed, so they have been untouchable at a few races this year, and at others we just have not matched then in terms of doing a good job."

Button also says that his team is also focusing on making improvements to its starts – after losing places off the grid at Monza last time out.

"My clutch was contaminated at the start," explained Button. "I had oil on the clutch so that is why I had a bad start. It is the first time it has happened this year, and that is the reason why I lost so many places.

"Our starts in general are I think okay, compared to Red Bull, quite similar, but compared to Ferrari we are definitely behind. There is not a lot of room here to overtake into Turn 1 which is good.

"When you have circuits that have a long drag down to Turn 1, it is very difficult for us to hold off a Ferrari if they are right behind us. So you do all the hard work on Saturday, and then you get overtaken into Turn 1. It is an important area and something we are always trying to improve with."

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner has rubbished fresh suggestions that his team breached the Resource Restriction Agreement last year, ahead of moves aimed at easing tensions between outfits about the scope of Formula 1's budget cap.

A recent audit of the activities of a selection of teams by Dutch consultancy firm Capgemini prompted media reports that discrepancies had been found at Red Bull Racing - on the back of the outfit asking for clarification about certain elements of the investigation.

Speaking in Singapore on Thursday, Horner dismissed talk that there was any issue over the amount of money Red Bull Racing spent - and said the team's 2010 budget had been signed off as under the RRA limits.

"It's false, absolutely false," said Horner when asked about the reports on Red Bull Racing breaking the RRA. "We agreed the scope, we worked within the scope. Job done!

"We've worked within the RRA, within the regulations that exist. It saved us money, saved the teams money. Unfortunately the consequence of success is people will throw stones."

Despite Capgemini's report having given the outfits it looked at – believed to be McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes GP, Red Bull Racing and Sauber – the all-clear, AUTOSPORT understands that there are issues relating to the scope of the RRA that still need sorting however.

Sources suggest that the key issues being looked at include the monitoring of wind tunnel time, the use of manufacturer resources for those teams owned by car makers, and how to ensure secret data is not made available to other outfits through any audit investigation.

Horner said: "The RRA still needs to be dealt with going forward. There are some fundamental issues that need dealing with in it. But overall we feel it's a good thing."

Sauber CEO Monisha Kaltenborn said that the matter was going to be dealt with in forthcoming meetings at FOTA.

"What Capgemini did was a benchmark study, looking at methodologies and how they are used," she said. "We were not in any way trying to verify the abiding of the RRA, that was not its mandate.

"It was to see how you interpret the rules and how you use them. The moment you write something in a contract it is always open to interpretation and that is what the idea to it was.

"That study has been completed. It has submitted a report, and according to our rules it is now up to the chairman of FOTA to assess that, and share it with us.

"As we understand, there are maybe one or two issues there that we shall discuss within FOTA, once we have been presented with the issues."

Thursday's press conference:

DRIVERS - Sébastien BUEMI (Toro Rosso), Timo GLOCK (Virgin), Sergio PÉREZ (Sauber), Daniel RICCIARDO (HRT), Nico ROSBERG (Mercedes), Sebastian VETTEL (Red Bull).

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Timo, this is probably a circuit that you quite like giving that you finished second here in 2009.

Timo GLOCK: Yeah, definitely. It is one of the best races in the calendar. For me the best or the top three. It is just a really good track. Here if you do one mistake you end up in the wall and it is quite different to all the other tracks and in 2009 it was one of my best races here, finished on the podium, second. Looking forward to be back again.

Q. What are your thoughts about this year given that it could be wet. So far, we have escaped the rain but would that be a great leveller? Is it something you would like?

TG: For us it would be good. It opens up a bit of chance for us. I think in wet conditions it is more difficult here. We will have to see. I think we had one little – I would say –wet practice last year and I felt quite happy with it. It is good fun here so we have to see what we can do if it's wet.

Q. Is that what would make the difference for you do you feel? Or is the car still developing?

TG: We have a little update here again. I think Monza was quite positive for us. It went in the right direction and the numbers were quite okay. It should be slightly better here but it doesn't change our position. As I said, if it rains, in wet conditions, the races are different and others maybe make mistakes and that's where we have to be on top and finish the race.

Q. Sergio, your first time here. Your first impressions?

Sergio PÉREZ: Well yesterday I went to walk the track even though it wasn't completely finished. I think it is a very difficult circuit to learn. I am looking forward to driving at night. It will be my first experience doing a night race and it's a street circuit and I always enjoy to drive on the streets.

Q. Both cars retired with gearbox problems in Monza. Was it the same gearbox problem and presumably now it's been sorted whatever it was?

SP: Yeah, of course. We try to find the problem and we found it. Now we are looking forward. We lost some good points in Monza due to this. But the team is very confident and looking forward to try and catch the competition, which is Force India. We try to get back the position and hopefully we can score some good points here.

Q. The last two circuits you've thought of as not being good circuits for you. Is this a better one or is a street circuit a street circuit and it's the same for everyone?

SP: Well I think in a street circuit a driver can make a little bit more difference so let's see how it goes. This is the first time in Singapore for me. I hope we can go well. The last races we have been quite good in terms of pace. Very unlucky not to get a result, but it is looking good and hopefully we can do a good job here.

Q. Daniel, first time here. Again, your first impressions?

Daniel RICCIARDO: Bit the same as Sergio. I am looking forward to another street circuit. It is my preferred type of circuit. I really enjoy Monaco and Macau and these ones. It is always nice to come to a new one. Lots of corners. It is going to be quite difficult to remember where it all goes, but I spent some time on the simulator so it should help me out. I think it is going to be quite physical as well. Drivers I have spoken to say it is one of the harder ones over the season. The humidity and the length of the race, it always seems to be pushing around two hours, so good challenge.

Q. What about in the wet?

DR: Another good challenge. Should be fun.

Q. There are so many different things here. The lack of grip, the heat, but what's the main impression from the simulator?

DR: I think it's going to be quite hard on traction. Lot of stop, stop, start. Some other corners where you are turning and braking as well so quite easy quite easy to lock an outside front tyre. I guess until I drive I won't know really where the time is going to be made or where it is going to be lost. But definitely challenging and I expect it to be quite bumpy as well. A typical street circuit. Never easy but always a good challenge and always something the drivers enjoy.

Q. Probably the closest race to home so far. Are many people coming up from Western Australia?

DR: Yeah, it is only a five-hour flight or so from home. Sounds long for European based people but very close for an Australian. My family and a few friends out to enjoy it. Whether they will be watching the race or up in one of the hotels gambling or drinking a few beers, I don't know but it should be good to have some support.

Q. Sébastien, what is the main thing to take into account for drivers here as there are so many different things: anti-clockwise; it's a street circuit; temperatures get cooler during the evening; humidity, all that sort of stuff.

Sébastien BUEMI: I think it is going to be a very tough race. Like you said all those points are making it a little bit harder for the drivers and the teams. We will have the super soft tyres and the soft as well so we will have to look after the tyres especially in the first few sessions. The weather is a bit unpredictable. We don't know if it is going to be rain or not. It takes a long time to dry up as well so you have got to take this into consideration. Then I think the circuit is quite bumpy so you have got to have in a way a soft car, you need to have a lot of downforce but you need to find a good compromise which is never easy with so little running. But still I think it is going to be a very good weekend and we will definitely enjoy it.

Q. For you this is a bit of a milestone. The 50th grand prix. Does that make you feel as though you are just beginning or are you feeling fairly experienced?

SB: I think you always learn whether it is 50 or 100. I don't know. At the end of the day you learn, you have got more experience, you know better what to do. It's the third time for me in Singapore and I think it is going to help definitely. Like we said it is a difficult race and you have got to have a bit of experience if you want to come around it pretty well.

Q. As we said before the car seems to be improving. Have you got further modifications here?

SB: We have got a few things, but the main difference is the fact that we will have a lot of downforce here compared to Monza. We closed the gap quite a bit on Force India and Sauber so I would say the fight with them is pretty open for us. Hopefully we will have a good race, but the qualifying we need to see it improve quite a bit but then normally the race pace is quite good so we will see.

Q. Sebastian, you have been second here on the grid, second in the race itself. Is this a good race or a bad race or an average one? Most of them seem to be good for Red Bull Racing?

Sebastian VETTEL: I think it is a very good race. One of the best we have in the season. It's a night race so very much looking forward to it. The circuit, as we touched on already, is one of the toughest for the drivers. To keep the focus it is extremely important so it should be a good race.

Q. Obviously you will be looking at the same two teams as usual, McLaren and Ferrari, but Fernando Alonso seems to be particularly keen here. He has won here twice.

SV: Yeah, I mean we will have to see. I think it will be a long weekend. A very long race. Nearly two hours. It is longer than all the other races that we have during the season. Ferrari were very competitive here last year. I think we were equally matched. I couldn't get past on the track, so hopefully this year it is the other way around. I think it will be a long weekend. On this circuit it is hard to predict who is really going to be very competitive. Obviously I think we will be fighting McLaren and Ferrari but also I think Mercedes could have a good chance here so we will see. It is a circuit where the car is important, but I think the driver can make a big difference as well.

Q. Is there still a flow of development parts coming?

SV: I wouldn't call it a flow. But we have some bits.

Q. A trickle then?

SV: Yeah, we have some bits. You always try to improve the car. It is not another step on Monza package as it is a completely different circuit but it is a step on the car we had on similar tyres of tracks, street circuit, so we will see.

Q. You could actually win the championship here. What are your thoughts on that?

SV: As you said would, could, should. So far we haven't won anything. We are in a good position but still some way to go. We have to race and do our normal job and try to achieve our best. It is one of the most difficult tracks for the car, for the drivers. It is a long, long way to the chequered flag. A lot of people talk about it but certain things have to happen. It reminds me a little bit of the situation we faced in Abu Dhabi where people came up every two or three minutes giving another option that is possible. Out of I don't know 1,467 options this could be one. It's not the objective for this weekend. The target is to optimise our performance and then either we get surprised or not?

Q. So we could say you are not in a hurry?

SV: Generally our target going into the season was to defend our title. We are in a very good position. There is no reason that the target should change. It doesn't really matter when, it matters to us that it happens and that is what we are working on.

Q. Nico, this is a circuit I think you really enjoy. You have qualified third here and finished second as well.

Nico ROSBERG: Yeah, in general I have had very good experiences here in the past few years. Often been right at the front. I had my best ever position here in 2008 second place so it's a track I enjoy and I hope I can do similarly well again this year.

Q. What is it about the circuit that's so enjoyable?

NR: It's just a street circuit. I go well on street circuits. It's just a big challenge and a lot of fun and quite tough.

Q. When it comes to the circuit and the car is it a good one for the car do you feel?

NR: Not sure. For sure the last couple of races have been good for the car like Spa and Monza where we have seen some progress but here probably a bit less so. But we need to see. We have a few new bits coming here to Singapore and that will improve the car so it remains to be seen. It's a possibility.

Q. In many ways you are quite a traveller. Do these final six grands prix excite you? The very thought that we are away from Europe now and it becomes a massive World Championship in itself.

NR: Of course I find it very exciting to go to see new places, especially. For example, India is going to be a very nice experience. Never been there. Look forward to that and even coming here is great. Singapore is a fantastic place and Japan. It's great venues that we have on the calendar.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Ian De Cotta – Today) Sebastian, I know you said 'it happens when it happens' but is there any pressure on you to realise the championship in Singapore?

SV: I think there's always pressure on me and on us because we want to achieve our best every single weekend and achieve our maximum so if there's a possibility or chance to win, then we want to go for it. I don't feel any extra pressure trying to win the championship here or trying to win it in one particular place. As I said earlier, we have to just remind ourselves what was the target going into the season and the target was not to win the championship by Singapore or any other race; the target was to win the championship itself. That's why I think this race is as important as all the other ones, to be able to win the championship.

Q. (Frederic Ferret – L'Equipe) Sebastian, last year you were stuck behind Fernando; do you think that DRS could help you to overtake him this year and overtake everyone?

SV: I think we have to wait and see. Sure you might have a better chance with the DRS, simply because of the fact that if you're close enough, the car behind is allowed to use it and the car in front is not, like at all the other places. But we've seen this year, firstly depending on distance – so how big the DRS zone is, and secondly, where the DRS zone is, meaning which circuit, which straights and so on. It can make a big difference, so we will have to wait until we find out here.

Q. (Marco Degl'Innocenti – La Gazzetta dello Sport) I would like to know from you all – except Sebastian – what is your personal opinion about the next possible World Champion, Sebastian Vettel? How do you judge him as a driver and fellow?

SB: I've known Sebastian for quite a long time now. He's been winning everything that he has raced in so I think he's doing a really good job, especially last year when he clinched the title in the last race. This year's he's had the perfect season, nothing to say. It's been a wonderful season, winning nearly all the races. He's just getting the maximum out of the car and the team. He's done the best job of everyone.

NR: Good driver and deserves to win.

TG: There's not much to add on that. I think Sebastian won the title last year, had a lot of ups and downs. This year, I think he's just managed to have a near perfect season up until now. I have my money on him to win the championship this weekend so he has to push for it.

NR: How much did you put on him?

TG: I'm not telling you!

NR: I heard 20,000, is that true?

TG: Not really, no.

SP: I think he's really a complete driver, and I think he deserves to win the championship this year.

DR: Seb sets a good target for us younger drivers, definitely. I think if we can repeat or maybe even one day try and do better, I think it's the ultimate. He's definitely set the benchmark, particular for us Red Bull Juniors. We'll try and follow.

Q. (Livio Oricchio – O Estado de São Paulo) Sebastian, this weekend will you take the same risks that you take in other races or will you be more conscious of this race?

SV: Well, it depends. It depends on the race that you're in. I think one thing is clear. It always depends – given the risks you take – it always depends on the chances you see. If you see that there's a gap and a chance to pass a car in front, then you go for it. If you think at that moment whether you decide to go for it or not that the risk is too high you don't do it. It would be wrong to drive around with the handbrake on, just say 'OK, I need to finish, I need to finish.' On the other hand, it would be wrong to go into the race and say 'now I need to risk something.' So I think you should just race. In the end, we have a long season, a lot of races. Surely sometimes you will make mistakes, it's natural. But I think the more races you do the more experience you get, ideally the fewer mistakes you make. As I said, we try to get the best out of this race and if we find ourselves in a good position, able to win, and there's a chance and a gap, we have to go for it. If not, there's no need to try something stupid.

Q. (Bob McKenzie – The Daily Express) Jenson is quoted today as saying that despite being fit, that because the race is at night, because of the humidity, the concentration levels, the race is actually a bit long and drivers would like to see it shortened. I wonder what the view is with everybody up there?

NR: Jenson can always stop if he gets a bit tired!

SV: I think it's fine as it is. It's the usual distance. Sure the speed is slow here because the average cornering speed is quite slow, so we need a lot of time to manage the 61 laps in the race, but it's one of the biggest challenges we have, so the focus has to be extremely high throughout the race. It's very hot, the humidity is very high. It's very tough for the drivers, the whole thing happens at night, it's more difficult for your eyes. I think it deserves to be a tough challenge. It's long but it's OK.

TG: It's definitely one of the hardest races but I'm used to [how it was in] 2005 when I did ChampCar. Every race was nearly up to two hours. If you do Milwaukee oval race and you have 225 laps to do, that's a long one. But I have to say, last year here was one of the toughest races for me because I was eleventh at some point in the race and I could hold up a lot of guys behind me and these 15 laps were some of the hardest I think I have ever had to drive. It's all about staying focused and quite similar to Monaco. As I said, if you make a mistake, it's over.

Q. (James Allen – Financial Times) Sebastian, going back to the DRS question earlier on, if you had had DRS last year, knowing what you know about it from this season, do you think you would have been able to get past Fernando, and secondly, there was quite a bit of banter between you and Fernando after the race in Monza about putting you on the grass. Was that always good humoured? You mentioned it a few times, did you feel it was a little bit marginal in the end?

SV:First part: it's hard to know. The cars were different last year but I think with DRS I would maybe have had a better chance. On the other hand, Fernando would not have waved me past so I would still have had to make the pass. I don't know. The race is done, we can't change the result. Overall I'm happy with last year's outcome, it's OK. For Monza, I think he didn't expect me to go on the left, so trying to go on the inside for the second chicane so initially he didn't see me, but as soon as he saw me, he didn't back off but he at least pulled to the right and gave me enough room. It was borderline but I know that if I want to get past, I have to try something. Actually, the lap before was more critical, when I was on the right, on the outside for the second chicane and he moved a little bit under braking to the right side and there wasn't much room for me. We talked about it after the race and I think it's fine. Generally, if you race people like Fernando and people with a lot of experience and people you respect a lot, you can really push the limits and really go wheel to wheel without thinking about it, because you know that the guy will see you and will know that you are there and will give you just enough room – not a lot but just enough.

Q. (Andy Benson – BBC Sport) Sebastian, on that subject, I understand you went to see the stewards about Fernando's driving after Monza... that's not true?

SV:No.

Q. (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) As you mentioned already, this is a street circuit like Monte Carlo. For those of you who know this circuit, what are the differences from Monte Carlo in terms of driving challenge and driving technique? Is it more or less difficult here?

TG: I would say Singapore is quite a bit longer than Monaco, but in general it's not that different –maybe it's slightly more bumpy here. And that's it really. It's at night yeah, but that's the difference.

SV: In a way it's tougher than Monaco. Obviously I haven't been around that long – maybe you should ask Michael – but I think over the last couple of years we have resurfaced (Monaco) again and again, and tried to make it smoother and better, safer. We've just been here a couple of times – this is the fourth time – but it's much rougher than Monaco in a way. It's very bumpy. At some places there's not a lot of room for mistakes – generally there's little or no run-off on street circuits but I think that given the lap is so long and there are so many corners, it's quite hot, it's humid, I think it makes it a tougher challenge in a way than Monaco. It's a different track, but I think it's tougher around here.

Q. (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Nico, which is more difficult: to catch Massa in the championship or keep Michael behind?

NR: My target is to catch Massa, for sure, but that's going to be a challenge. It's also difficult to keep Michael behind, and I just need to keep on scoring points consistently and don't get taken out in the first corner.

Q. (Gary Meenaghan – The National) Do you think that night racing is an unnecessary expense or is it something more circuits should look to try and consider?

SV: I think it makes it very cool around here, it's something very special, something we all look forward to. Here and obviously Abu Dhabi, we start just when the sun goes down. It's exciting for us and I think it's also more exciting to watch, in a way. It doesn't meant that all the races have to be night races now, because then it wouldn't be something special, so I think the rhythm we have is very fine and with one or two – maybe three - races in the future per year. I don't know where. It could be very nice.

Q. (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) I would assume that you've watched either all or part of the re-run of the Italian Grand Prix. What are your comments about Michael Schumacher's driving? Was it within the bounds of sporting good behaviour; what are your feelings?

SB: I think that he was really quick on the straight, first of all, and that Lewis had a completely different rear wing setting so that he was on the limiter a lot, which is maybe a better compromise for them in qualifying, but worse in the race. I don't think it was unfair, I think that what he did was quite fair. It was on the edge, at the limit, but I still think that the biggest problem was that McLaren were really short on seventh gear.

SV: I think it was fun to watch, that's one thing. Whether it was too hard or not… in a way it's very easy for us to understand Lewis's frustration: if you are behind, know that you can go quicker and you're stuck because you're short on ratios and the other car is very quick on the straights, and you can't really get past. I saw the race and one move was arguably a little bit too much. I don't know if Michael saw him or not, but out of the first chicane, when Lewis tried, with the speed he had, to go on the inside, it looked like Michael didn't see him so he had to go on the grass.

Q. (Mat Coch – pitpass.com) To Sergio and Daniel: having come from the junior categories, what's the style of racing like in Formula One compared to the feeder series?

DR: I think it's definitely different. In a lot of junior categories you go 110 percent from the green light to the finish and you don't have to worry about other factors coming into play. Fuel effect isn't really anything and your tyres last the race. I think, for me, the more difficult thing, or the different thing to get used to, is maybe at times driving more conservatively. You're always tempted to push 100 percent/110 percent but you have to think about what's best for the tyres and for strategy and situations, so that's probably a brief summary of the differences that I'm experiencing.

SP: Yes, I think you have a lot more things in Formula One, like different tyre compounds and you have to drive in a different style on each of them, to try to make them last as long as possible. It's a bit similar to GP2 in that way, in that you have to save the tyres a bit, but you also have to be on the limit and try to save the tyres as much as possible. You are always changing your style during the race. This is something very important and important to learn, and you've got to learn during the races, because to make them last and be fast, you have to be changing your style every single lap, every single corner.

Q. Is the track behaviour, is the driving behaviour very different?

SP: Well, I think it's a combination, it's a combination of both. I would say it's quite different.

[Lineker]

First practice for the Singapore Grand Prix was delayed for 30 minutes because of track repairs required to the Marina Bay circuit.

Earlier running of the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia had highlighted a problem with some of the plastic exit kerbs working loose at Turns 3 and 14, which has required attention from race organisers.

FIA safety representatives Charlie Whiting and Herbie Blash were seen attending to the kerbs ahead of the scheduled start time, with some sections of the kerbing being removed entirely.

Lewis Hamilton was quickest for McLaren in a truncated opening practice session for the Singapore Grand Prix.

Issues with the kerbing on the exit of Turns 3 and 14 developed during support race session, and led to an half-hour delay while the kerbs were removed before the session could get underway.

With only a two-hour gap between Friday practice sessions in Singapore, practice one was reduced to just 60 minutes to keep the timetable on schedule, although a further problem with the kerbing - this time at Turn 7 - brought the red flags out eight minutes from the end. Quick work by marshals saw the offending kerb section removed within five minutes so a little more running could take place.

When the session had initially got underway, Ferrari's Felipe Massa was the early pacesetter, sitting atop the times with a 1m52.043s lap for a long while.

It was only as twilight became darkness in the final 20 minutes that things began to hot up at the front. McLaren had completed little running in the first half of the session, but Jenson Button deposed Massa with a 1m50.952s when he did get going.

That was comfortably beaten by a 1m50.082s from Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull two minutes later, with the championship leader finding another 0.4s next time around.

Lewis Hamilton then appeared up front with 12 minutes to go, edging a tenth ahead of Vettel. The German soon fought back and delivered a lap half a second quicker than the McLaren's - but Hamilton had more speed to come as well, putting in a 1m48.599s to reclaim the top spot by 0.406s.

The second kerb problem prevented any further changes at the front, with most of the field braving the traffic jam at the pit exit but only a handful of drivers improving in the three minutes of running that followed the green light.

Vettel retained second, with team-mate Mark Webber third.

Aero work early in the session meant Fernando Alonso only had a few flying laps in his Ferrari. He took fourth, ahead of Button and Massa.

A strong session for Force India saw Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta seventh and ninth, split by Michael Schumacher's Mercedes, with Nico Rosberg 10th in the sister silver car.

In his first appearance since Nurburgring practice in July, Narain Karthikeyan led HRT team-mate Daniel Ricciardo until the final moments, when he was pipped to 23rd. The Indian was given Tonio Liuzzi's car for this session as a warm-up for his racing return at his inaugural home grand prix next month.

In addition to the kerb issues, there was another a brief red flag interruption at the session's halfway point when Heikki Kovalainen's Lotus came to a halt with its front brakes on fire. Unlike last year, when the Finn famously had to put out a blaze on his Lotus himself in the race, Kovalainen was able to summon marshals to extinguish the fires, though he still assisted with pushing the car off the circuit.

The session's other main incident was a collision between Webber and Timo Glock. Contact was made as the Red Bull tried to pass the Virgin into the penultimate corner, smashing a chunk from Webber's front wing and leaving Glock with a puncture.

FP1


Pos Driver                Team                  Time               Laps

 1. Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes      1m48.599s +         10

 2. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault      1m49.005s + 0.406   15

 3. Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault      1m50.066s + 1.467   16

 4. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1m50.596s + 1.997   11

 5. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes      1m50.952s + 2.353   12

 6. Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1m52.043s + 3.444   14

 7. Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes  1m52.251s + 3.652   13

 8. Michael Schumacher    Mercedes              1m52.416s + 3.817   12

 9. Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes  1m52.435s + 3.836   13

10. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes              1m52.815s + 4.216   13

11. Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth     1m52.991s + 4.392   17

12. Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m53.050s + 4.451   17

13. Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth     1m53.399s + 4.800   18

14. Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari        1m53.703s + 5.104   19

15. Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari        1m53.749s + 5.150   12

16. Bruno Senna            Renault              1m53.765s + 5.166   17

17. Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari    1m53.785s + 5.186   16

18. Vitaly Petrov         Renault               1m54.736s + 6.137    8

19. Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault         1m54.821s + 6.222    9

20. Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault         1m56.198s + 7.599    8

21. Jerome D-Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth       1m57.798s + 9.199   13

22. Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth       1m58.792s + 10.193   6

23. Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth          1m59.169s + 10.570  17

24. Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth          1m59.214s + 10.615  18


All Timing Unofficial[/code]




Sebastian Vettel was quickest in second practice in Singapore, completing a strong start to the weekend that could see him crowned world champion for the second straight year.



The Red Bull driver set the early practice two pace with a 1m47.375s lap - 0.7 seconds ahead of team-mate Mark Webber as the champion squad dominated the initial running.



Those times stood until drivers began switching to super-soft tyres in the second half of the session. Ferrari's Felipe Massa was the first of the frontrunners to do so and clocked a 1m47.120s to go quickest with 41 minutes to go. His team-mate Fernando Alonso then beat that time by 0.6s 10 minutes later to hit the front.



Vettel backed off on his first super-soft lap when he encountered Timo Glock's Virgin, but his second attempt resulted in a 1m46.374s, putting him on top by 0.201s over Alonso. With the top teams all switching to long runs thereafter, Vettel's position was secure.



Lewis Hamilton took third for McLaren, while his team-mate Jenson Button's evening ended very early when he slid straight on at Turn 14 just before the session's halfway point. Although Button stopped without hitting the barriers, he was unable to make his car reverse back on course, so had to abandon the McLaren. He tumbled to 10th in the times as a result.



Massa was pushed back to fourth in the end, just ahead of Mark Webber in the second Red Bull.



Michael Schumacher's strong recent run continued with sixth place for Mercedes, followed by Adrian Sutil's Force India and the Saubers of Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi. The latter enlivened the evening with a wild misjudging of the Turn 10 chicane that resulted in the Sauber flying through the air over the middle kerb.



A tough night for Toro Rosso saw Jaime Alguersuari sidelined in the garage with a mechanical issue after 14 laps, though his time before then was still good enough for 11th, and Sebastien Buemi derange his suspension when he made firm contact with the wall at the penultimate corner.



Schumacher also hit the barriers, in his case at Turn 3, as he almost spun the Mercedes on an early run. But the wall nudged the car back onto the correct line and Schumacher continued without damage.



Paul di Resta spent most of the session in the pits while Force India attended to a time-consuming issue on his car. He got back out with a few minutes to go, and was able to lift himself from 17th to 13th.





[code]FP2


Pos  Driver                Team                    Time                Laps

 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault        1m46.374s            33

 2.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                 1m46.575s  + 0.201   28

 3.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes        1m47.115s  + 0.741   22

 4.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                 1m47.120s  + 0.746   23

 5.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault        1m47.265s  + 0.891   28

 6.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes                1m48.418s  + 2.044   27

 7.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes    1m48.866s  + 2.492   32

 8.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari          1m49.578s  + 3.204   27

 9.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari          1m49.730s  + 3.356   29

10.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes        1m49.751s  + 3.377   10

11.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m49.792s  + 3.418   14

12.  Bruno Senna            Renault                1m50.241s  + 3.867   31

13.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes    1m50.345s  + 3.971    8

14.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault                 1m50.399s  + 4.025   29

15.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes                1m50.790s  + 4.416   28

16.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth       1m50.897s  + 4.523   24

17.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth       1m50.937s  + 4.563   30

18.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault           1m51.950s  + 5.576   26

19.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari      1m52.257s  + 5.883   15

20.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault           1m52.489s  + 6.115   25

21.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth         1m53.579s  + 7.205   25

22.  Jerome D-Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth         1m54.649s  + 8.275   25

23.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth            1m54.754s  + 8.380   29

24.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth            1m55.198s  + 8.824   26


All Timing Unofficial

Vitaly Petrov thinks Renault may have to wait until the Japanese Grand Prix to discover the full potential of its latest upgrade package, with the team staggering its introduction over the next few races.

Renault has struggled on low-speed circuits so far this year, which leaves it cautious about its prospects for this weekend's race in Singapore, but Petrov is most optimistic about its chances for faster tracks coming up.

As part of its development push, Renault is introducing tighter packaging of its rear bodywork in Singapore, while further updates have now been postponed until Japan.

Speaking ahead of first practice, Petrov said: "Maybe with [softer] Pirelli tyres or maybe on this track our car will be quick, but before at low speed and with traction our car is not fantastic.

"For Suzuka maybe we will have a good car and maybe we will bring some surprise things, but here we don't know."

Petrov has also revealed that the team recently discovered the performance of its car was susceptible to change depending on bodywork attachment.

"Sometimes the bodywork, if you fix it wrong, like if one nut is tightened a bit stronger, then the bodywork can get shaped in a different way - so all the aerodynamics are completely different," he said.

"The mechanics now try to be precise how they fix it - because our car looks like it is super sensitive [in this area]. We understood this a few races ago and it is quite interesting.

"We found for example in Monza and in Spa, we found that when the mechanics did something like fixing the floor or other parts of the car, it completely changed the aero - and we lost 10 points, or even 15-20 points [of downforce]."

Renault has decided to abandon its latest upgrade for the remainder of the Singapore Grand Prix weekend after suffering overheating problems in first practice.

Vitaly Petrov was scheduled to try out the revised tighter bodywork and sidepods during the opening day of action in Singapore, but a radiator problem experienced early on forced a change of plan.

The team made a swift call to revert to the standard specification bodywork so as not to lose further running time, and it hopes to have the developments ready to work properly for the next race in Japan.

"We lost P1 because we decided to change the problem quickly as we would not have made P2," Petrov told AUTOSPORT. "We cannot risk running it tomorrow because there is no time.

"Losing P1 at this circuit it is quite a disaster because here you find a lot of time by driving and learning, so I think we will not be super quick here on this circuit but we will be in Suzuka. You never know, though."

Team principal Eric Boullier remained optimistic that tweaks to the updates will ensure it is working more effectively at Suzuka, where the team is pinning a good step forward in form.

"It was not the upgrade itself that did not work, it was more something wrong with the water flow for the radiators," he explained. "It was something more mechanical inside and obviously because you cannot test it, and we could not take the risk to miss P2, we decided to go back to the standard package.

"But of course we will work on it and try and get it back on the car for Suzuka."

With the update expected to bring a few tenths of a second per lap to the car, Boullier admitted that the setback had further dampened the team's already low expectations for this weekend.

"We know that we suffer a lot on the slow track layouts, so we know we will be suffering here, and James [Allison] warned everybody about that. It will be better in Japan and Korea, we know this."

Vitaly Petrov has no concerns about his future at Renault - despite speculation that he could be replaced at the Enstone-based outfit for 2012.

Although the Russian has a contract in place for next year, that has not stopped rumours that he could be replaced if Renault changes owners or the team needs to find a spot for a sponsor-backed driver.

The stories were further fuelled when team principal Eric Boullier said at Monza about the Petrov situation: "You have contracts, but there is also some exit clause for everybody."

Petrov has laughed off talk that his place is under threat, though, and reckoned too much had been read into Boullier's comments.

"I think everything is fine, it is just rubbish in the newspapers. Like we have spoken before, at the beginning of the season we signed for two years and I don't see the point to be worried."

When asked about Boullier's comment that every contract has exit clauses, Petrov said: "Everywhere in the world a contract can be finished but not because I did a bad season or because I had fewer points, the contract can be finished by another particular thing – money. This is why he said it; if you ask him a different question maybe he can answer differently.

"For me and people who know what I am doing I think it is rubbish to talk about this, although maybe I am not right."

Petrov believes that his standing in the team has improved this year, after the team realised how much he had lifted his game compared to last season.

"I think they thought [Nick] Heidfeld would take a big role like [Robert] Kubica, but then they start to understand from the beginning of the year that I can do things better. And for qualifying I did a lot of improvements, but sometimes we had bad luck.

"Now when they bring some new parts they always put them on my car to test or to try them, and then I tell them the feedback how was it."

McLaren duo Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton say they have no interest in who finishes runner-up behind Sebastian Vettel in the title chase this year - as the focus for the remainder of the year is on building momentum for a return to form in 2012.

With Vettel on the verge of clinching his second championship in Singapore this weekend, both Hamilton and Button concede that the fight for title glory is over for this year.

But despite a close fight between the McLaren duo, Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber for the runner-up spot, neither driver says he will get too excited about who wins the battle for 'best of the rest'.

Speaking at a promotional event for new McLaren sponsor Lucozade, Hamilton said: "Anywhere below first you are just the first, second, third or fourth of the losers..."

Button added: "It's [finishing second] not really the aim, is it? When you've won championships…if you haven't won the championship it is probably different, but when you have, you just want to win."

Despite not caring about finishing runner-up in the championship, both Hamilton and Button are determined to secure as many wins as possible before the end of the year – and have put a special focus on ending Red Bull Racing's lock-out of pole positions this year.

Hamilton said: "It would be fantastic. Just for the team, being the only team and being the only driver able to knock Seb off pole position would be pretty cool. We want to get in front of the Red Bulls this weekend."

Button added: "It is not going to make any difference to the championship, but it would be nice as a team to qualify on pole here, or at least the front row.

"If we can win the race here and continue that until the end of the season that is a great starting point for next year."

Sebastian Vettel has played down his performance in Friday practice for the Singapore Grand Prix, the German claiming he expects things to be very tight this weekend.

The Red Bull driver, who could become a double champion this weekend, posted the quickest time in the afternoon session on Friday, outpacing Ferrari's Fernando Alonso by two tenths and McLaren's Lewis Hamilton by over seven.

Despite his strong start to the weekend, Vettel denied Red Bull had the advantage in Singapore.

"I wouldn't call it advantage, I think it looked pretty tight," said Vettel. "It depends where and when and who was out, we have to wait and see.

"It is Friday. Tomorrow is Saturday and we worry about FP3. Then qualifying and then the race. The feeling in the car was alright. We have to see. We have to look how the others were, do our homework tonight and then see what we can do tomorrow.

"We did work quite a bit, the car was good though. The baseline was not too bad, I think we can still have to make a good step overnight so now we see what the others did and we will do our homework."

The German said it was still hard to see who his main rivals will be this weekend, but admitted Ferrari was looking very strong.

"I don't know. I didn't have as much time as you to look at the times so I was busy when I was on the track, but surely Ferrari looked quite competitive, Felipe as well at some stage, so we need to see.

"Jenson [button] didn't have the best day today so we see what happens tomorrow."

Team-mate Mark Webber was fifth fastest.

Mark Webber believes he must hit the ground running at the start of 2012 if he is going to be able to take the fight to Sebastian Vettel next year.

The Australian believes his title hopes this season faltered on the back of a poor opening part to the campaign, whereas Vettel won five of the opening six races.

Webber thinks it vital that the situation is not repeated next year - which is why he is targeting a better winter testing programme so he can build momentum ahead of the first race

"He [Vettel] had a great run at the start of the year and I wasn't really on top of everything at the start," said Webber. "Obviously I had quite a few reliability issues as well, which is never ideal.

"In the end I think my form has been a lot better in the last few races for sure, and unfortunately when I got in the lead in the Nurburgring I didn't have the car to win anyway. So, it was difficult there - and Spa was probably the most frustrating race of the year in terms of being the quickest guy in the race and having to deal with a tough start to the race and then missing the safety car with a free pit stop. That happens.

"It was a missed opportunity but it was going to be very, very difficult for me to put together a championship together against Seb given the start he had."

When asked by AUTOSPORT about what he felt he needed to do better in 2012 if he was to take the fight to Vettel, Webber said: "We need to have a better start, for sure, to the championship. And we need to have a similar year to what I had last year; out qualify him more often, which was certainly the case last year, and then getting track position and getting the stops.

"That is where it is important to get that, and if you don't get that you are always going to finish one position behind. If you are on the road 1-2 or 2-3, you never really get the momentum."

Webber thinks it took him until the European Grand Prix at Valencia to really get to grips with the nature of the Pirelli tyres – especially in how to look after them over a race distance.

"In Valencia it was a bit of a change for me, I could do the same strategy for the first time," he said. "In all the races before that, I had the pace but I had to make an extra pit stop, and I don't really understand why that happened but it did.

"In Valencia there was a bit of a point in terms of things changing there for my Sunday performance because before then I had to make this extra stop, which is always littered with problems. It gets difficult to clear traffic and coming through, those sorts of things.

"I think it will be much more stable next year in terms of continuity of the tyres and certainly we need to put up a better fight than we did this year, there is no question about it. It is just a case of that's the way the cookie crumbled this year."

Red Bull Racing may be on the verge of more title success in Singapore this weekend, but team principal Christian Horner has warned its rivals that he thinks the outfit can do even better next year.

With Sebastian Vettel able to secure his second world championship on the streets of Marina Bay, Horner believes that his whole outfit has proved itself to be strong in all areas this year - which means it can target further success in 2012.

"The thing that has been extremely pleasing so far this year is we have delivered in all areas," Horner told AUTOSPORT.

"When we've not had the quickest car we've still won because operationally we've been strong, and when we have had the quickest car we've capitalised on that and made it pay.

"So to have won eight of the 13 races and the consistency with which we've achieved that, from Monaco to Monza, has been phenomenal.

"The team learned a lot of lessons from last year, and has grown stronger as a unit, in strength in depth, at trackside, back at the factory, including the drivers.

"The lessons we've learned this year will apply next year. We're a strong unit, and as we gain experience and with continuity, we'll continue to build on that."

Although much of the focus this weekend is on whether or not Vettel can win the championship here, Horner insists that his team is approaching the Singapore GP as it has every other race.

"Sebastian's in good shape. He's had a good preparation for this race. Both drivers came in reasonably late to keep on the night- shift time zone. But for us we are going about this race like any other this year, we'll attack the weekend and try and ensure we maximise the performance over the course of it.

"You've seen the last two races. We haven't gone into a cruise-and -collect mode. We've attacked the two grands prix that historically have been very tough for us. Monza was a phenomenal result for the whole team, and it would be great to go one better here.

"Mathematically Sebastian is in great shape in the championship, but nothing is done, and we take absolutely nothing for granted. We're just focused on extracting the best out of the cars and out of the weekend."

Horner has also praised the step forward that Vettel has made this year, as he delivered a level of consistency that he found so difficult to produce in 2011.

"He's been the stand-out driver, he's won eight grands prix, second in four of them and fourth in the other, and he's had 10 poles," explained Horner. "It's a phenomenal run of results, and one that as a team, and Seb himself, are keen to build on in the remaining six events.

"He has completely proved his detractors wrong. He's continued to evolve and to grow. Last year he had a lot of bad luck at different stages. If you think of the three failures he had in Australia, Bahrain and Korea, they cost him significantly.

"Last year he learned a lot, and he has just grown, as an individual with experience, his confidence is high and he has complete belief in the team around him.

"He is also delivering at a phenomenally high level, and the consistency with which he does that is quite remarkable."

Michael Schumacher crossed the line and should have been punished by the race officials following his defence from Lewis Hamilton at Monza.

That is the view of Sir Jackie Stewart, who says the German seven-time champion clearly over-did his defence but escaped sanction because of his reputation.

"He over-did it," Stewart declared. "Had it not been Michael Schumacher I think he would have been either very heavily reprimanded or certainly given a drive-through at minimum.

"That's about a 20, 25-second penalty - it justified more than that in my opinion."

Stewart said Mercedes team boss Ross Brawn's radio message to Schumacher proved the German was lucky not be penalised, but said that the damage to Hamilton's race hopes had already been done.

"I was disappointed by the governing body because there is a rule: you can't do that [move twice] again and again. As we now know Ross told Michael he was likely to be penalised.

"I thought he drove a very good race, a hard race, but that doesn't mean to say it was a fair race. You could say that Lewis Hamilton lost all chances of winning the race by that, and I think that's wrong."

Asked about Schumacher's form in general, Stewart said he believed the German had retired from Formula 1 too early - leaving him unsatisfied and prompting his return with Mercedes last year.

"I strongly believe that the real problem is that he retired too early, he wasn't ready for retirement. Had he stayed on two more years then he would have retired satisfied I think, even if he hadn't won another championship – it wouldn't have mattered, I think he would have had enough of Formula 1.

"I can only judge from my own experience. When I decided in April 1973 that I was going to retire I went to every grand prix knowing it was the last time I would ever be there driving a car in anger, and I so much more enjoyed it because of that.

"He [schumacher] seemed to not have anything in his life commercially or in the business sense that would consume him sufficiently to satisfy what he was missing."

Scuderia Toro Rosso broke the first of its curfews after team principal Franz Tost arrived too early for work in Singapore on Friday afternoon.

As part of a new rule introduced at the start of this year, operational team personnel are not allowed to be in the confines of the circuit between a time period that stretches from nine hours before first practice to three hours before.

The skewed timetable at Singapore's night race meant that the curfew stretched from 9am to 3pm on Friday - which caught Tost out after he arrived early to begin his day's work before the afternoon cut-off.

Teams are allowed four exceptions to the curfew over the course of the season without punishment, which means no sanctions will be taken against Toro Rosso.

Red Bull Racing, HRT and Renault have all broken the curfew at various points this season, but no team has yet exceeded the four limit.

A philosophical Jenson Button said he was focusing on the positives despite missing the majority of second practice after running wide at Turn 14 of the Singapore Marina Bay circuit.

Button locked up and only narrowly avoided the wall at Turn 14 just before the session's halfway point. He was initially able to select reverse, but the gear stopped working and Button's car was stranded, forcing him to watch from the sidelines.

While the Briton conceded his lack of long-run experience on the super-soft tyre was a disadvantage, he says he was still able to learn lessons from the session after observing it alongside his engineer.

"It was a short day for me, but it was quite interesting watching other people's times, watching them on the circuit," Button said. "We have a lot of useful information I think.

"We have to take the positives from the session. The negatives were I narrowly missed the barrier and then couldn't drive away because I couldn't get reverse, but the positives are that we were able to watch and see what people are doing in their runs.

"Set-up work we wouldn't have done much more anyway, I think we know which direction we need to go in, but I was disappointed not to get a long run on the super-soft tyre because that's the tyre everyone will struggle with because over-heating of the tyre is very high."

Despite his cool approach, Button did admit he feared cracking the front row would be difficult with the Red Bull looking fast over one lap - while he also said Fernando Alonso's long-run pace gave McLaren cause for concern.

"The front? It's going to be very very tough," Button explained. "The Red Bull is very fast over one lap, and Fernando was up there and his long run was very impressive.

"I think everyone is going to struggle with tyres. The prime is sliding just like the option, and then that causes high temperature, which causes more sliding - you get into a pretty bad situation and there is a massive drop off after just three laps.

"We're not really confident [of the podium] at the moment. There's a few things we still need to sort out and we're not happy with the balance. We have some good ideas for tomorrow though - its only an hour but we'll make some good progress."

Lewis Hamilton fears overturning Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull's current domination in Singapore may prove difficult following the German's performance in second practice.

Hamilton set the ultimate pace in free practice one, but was seven tenths off Vettel in the second session - which also saw Fernando Alonso finish above the Briton.

Hamilton said that the uncertainty over fuel loads meant there was some hope the gap to Vettel could be closed, but admitted he held little hope it could be overturned completely.

"Friday is really difficult to determine," the 26-year-old explained. "There is a big gap between us and Sebastian right now, and I suspect tomorrow there will be a big gap in qualifying unless there is a big difference in fuel loads.

"I definitely think getting them at the moment will be very difficult. Its not impossible, but with the pace he has right now it looks pretty tough. Fuel load and tyres can make a huge difference though, so I'm stilloptimistic.

"I don't know what Ferrari was running but I pray they have gone light too."

Hamilton said that while outright pace would be important, the key to the race could be making the tyres last, particularly with degradation proving so troublesome in practice.

"The key for victory is sheer pace," Hamilton said. "Positioning and qualifying are very important, and then after that looking after your tyres is really the key so we have to make some adjustments to see if we can try and reduce the sliding we have.

"Singapore is very, very tough on these tyres. I didn't get the first lap of my option tyre run and that's really when the tyres are at their best. When I came to the second attempt the rears just gave up, so when I attacked the corners they just slide.

"They get to a point where they just don't work any more and then you're done. It's about trying to reduce that so we've got to change the set-up a little bit."

Fernando Alonso is optimistic that Ferrari's gentle tyre use could give the team the edge over Red Bull in race conditions despite being outpaced by Sebastian Vettel during Friday practice.

The Spaniard, who was two tenths off Vettel, admitted that Red Bull looks strong based on today's running, but with tyre degradation expected to be high around the street track, he believes that this could prove to be Ferrari's trump card.

This is despite still hoping that Ferrari could improve its single lap pace tomorrow by enough to challenge Vettel.

"Our long run pace was okay," said the Spaniard. "Normally here we face high tyre degradation, which is good for us because our car seems to take care of the tyres better than some others. If there is tyre degradation, maybe we have an opportunity.

"Last year, on Friday we had a few problems and then in qualifying we were up there. I hope tomorrow it's similar and we are fighting for the best positions.

"But we are realistic and today we saw a very strong Red Bull, so it's not going to be easy. But let's hope that things change for the better."

Despite the laptime disadvantage compared to Red Bull, Alonso was happy with the balance of his Ferrari.

But he warned that the picture could change tomorrow after today's running was blighted by kerb problems that reduced running time and red flags. This, along with the difficulty of getting a perfect lap when on fresh rubber, means that the competitive order could be different on Saturday.

"We are more or less happy with the car," said Alonso. "But here it is difficult to exploit the potential of the car when you have only one or two laps from the tyres at maximum performance.

"There is always the traffic, on in this occasion there was also the red and yellow flags. So I think that the times maybe are a little mixed up.

"I'm sure that there are some quick guys who didn't perform because of these factors and there are some other guys that are maybe up in the front but will struggle a bit more tomorrow."

Michael Schumacher lamented the track time lost during practice in Singapore, after organisers were forced to delay the start to carry out track repairs.

The opening practice session was reduced to just 60 minutes after problems emerged with the kerbs at Turns 3 and 13.

With the track very slippery because its lack of use, Schumacher admitted it was far from ideal to lose valuable running time.

"As usual on these types of circuits, the track is pretty slippery and provides low grip. It was not really useful therefore that the practice time was cut, because we had a big programme to work on," said Schumacher, who finished as sixth quickest.

"But then, it was what it was, so we made the best out of it. The picture overall is probably as expected: no big surprises, and maybe the most obvious thing is that the difference between the tyres is quite big.

"For the rest, it is too early to say as we did not have the time yet to analyse the practice sessions fully. I like the race here; it is a bit like the modern Monaco, very exciting with more run-off areas."

Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg was also left ruing the time lost during the session, with a red flag also interrupting the running in the morning.

"It was difficult to learn a lot in the first practice session this evening due to the interruptions," he said. "However in the second session this evening, we were able to work through a lot of set-up changes and learn a lot about the car.

"I was on higher fuel levels to help our understanding of how to prepare the car for the race. It wasn't a perfect day but a decent day for me and hopefully we can make further progress tomorrow."

Paul di Resta is confident of being able to bounce back from a bad start to the Singapore Grand Prix weekend after braking problems restricted his running during this afternoon's free practice session.

The Scot managed only 13 laps during first practice and a further eight in the afternoon. Only seven of those were timed laps, leaving him short of running on his first visit to the track.

"If anywhere was crucial to get laps, it is around here," said di Resta. "But in Monaco, I lost FP2 with a gearbox problem and still qualified in front of Adrian [sutil].

"It's not going to be an easy task, but you have to deal with these situations. The guys worked hard try and get the car out in time so big credit to them for doing that in this heat."

With team-mate Sutil ending the session seventh fastest, there is reason for Force India to be optimistic despite di Resta's problems.

Despite completing so few laps, di Resta was happy with the balance of the car and prime tyres and at least had the chance to familiarise himself with the track.

"In general, our performance isn't too bad," said di Resta. "We've shown strongly for how limited the time I've had here is. Adrian showed the car pace, but I can't say much more than that.

"I have no tyre wear data and no idea of the balance for the start of the race. I've just got to go with the baseline setup tomorrow morning.

"I've got an idea of the track. It's very technical and there's a lot to it. It's about building confidence as, like Monaco, there's not much room for error and you have to get close tot he walls to get the maximum from the car."

The lack of running for di Resta has also hit the teams testing programme for the weekend, as the two cars were running in slightly different specifications in order to gather comparative data.

Singapore Grand Prix organisers will work overnight on improving the kerbs at the Marina Bay circuit following a host of problems on the opening day of practice.

The first of Friday's sessions had to be delayed for 30 minutes because plastic kerbs were being lifted away from the track, and further problems were encountered in the evening's second practice.

Keen to avoid any problems on Saturday, the FIA is working with track officials to improve matters - and is confident the situation can be sorted ahead of final free practice.

The current plan is for the kerbs at Turn 3 and Turn 7 to be removed and painted – with drivers instructed that they will not be allowed to cross the white line that designates the side of the track.

At Turn 14, the kerb on the entry to the corner will be removed entirely, while efforts will be made at Turn 10 and Turn 13 to ensure that there are no further issues.

However, the FIA is being flexible with its approach to ensure its solution works, and will only inform the teams of its definitive plan ahead of FP3.

Fernando Alonso said the situation was not of too much concern to him – and the only impact for Saturday was that drivers may have to modify their racing lines to ensure they do not run off the track.

"It's the same for everybody," said Alonso. "Obviously we lost a bit of time in FP1, which is never a help.

"For tomorrow, I guess there will be some further changes, some of the kerbs will be removed in some of the corners and some of them they will repair. Tomorrow we need to find again maybe different lines, or different ways to attack the corners, but it's the same for everybody."

Felipe Massa added: "In some corners I think it was fine, not too bad like on the exit of corner 3. Maybe the exit of corner 14 was okay without the kerb, but it was quicker and it will be even quicker tomorrow because outside it was very slippery, but it's getting the grip.

"It's not a big change having or not having it. But I think they are going to put it back there and take it away in some other places, like the entrance of corner 13. We don't need that kerb, all of the drivers agree that the kerb is there but we don't need it.

"It's a very slow corner so it's no problem. We'll see how the changes are tomorrow - I think out of corner 5 they will take it away."

Friday's press conference:

TEAM REPRESENTATIVES - Riad ASMAT (Team Lotus), Jean Francois CAUBET (Renault Sport F1), Robert FERNLEY (Force India), Norbert HAUG (Mercedes), Gerard LOPEZ (Lotus Renault), Sam MICHAEL (Williams)

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Bob, first of all, what happened to Paul di Resta today?

Robert FERNLEY: We had a problem with the brakes, the machining of the brakes and the hydraulics. Paul has a lot of steel, he'll bounce back tomorrow.

Q. Obviously the performances are improving and Vijay Mallya has emphasised that. The thing is carrying it through to next year. That is the task isn't it?

RF: Well, I think next year is a completely different programme. What we had to do at the beginning of this year was to take a step backwards in order to understand where we lost our way at the end of 2010 and what you see now is the evolution of all that work coming through. Obviously with the change of regulations with the blown floors next year is a completely different ballpark.

Q. Have you already started work on next year? When are you finishing development on this year's.

RF: We started work on next year's some time ago. This is probably the last major upgrade that we will do for the 2011 car.

Q. And the battle with Sauber?

RF: Very hard. They are very competitive. They are not going to give in easily, so we will have to work as hard as we can.

Q. Is that something you look forward to?

RF: Yes, very much so. They are a good team, working hard. I mean all the teams in all fairness in that midfield area are incredibly competitive and we are going to have to work very, very hard to hold onto sixth place. Sam managed to beat us last year by one point. I don't want to repeat it this year.

Q. Jean Francois, you are heading for a World Championship victory I am sure. That is almost certain, but what are Renault's feelings about it?

Jean Francois CAUBET: I think if we win the championship this year it will be the 10th time in 20 years. We think we did a good choice to sell engines and stop managing a team and I think the long-term strategy we will have with the Red Bull team is a good thing for future of Formula One and Renault.

Q. What is Renault Sport's position within the Renault group as it were?

JC: Renault Sport is doing only Formula One. We were 200 people last year. We will be 250 next year. It is a key point and the board is pushing Formula One in Renault now for the long term. I think that is good news.

Q. Is that expansion because of the new engine?

JC: Yes, I think we have 25 people coming from Renault mainly to develop the electric side of the V6 but we will have 40 next year and one team is 10 people more.

Q. Riad, a new job as CEO. Tell us about your new job and what it concerns?

Riad ASMAT: Well, I guess we have expanded in actually owning a car company as well as an engineering business and ever since certain developments that is the new role. I look into not just the Formula One side of things but the actual road car and engineering business from this point. A bit more work actually.

Q. So you are in charge of everything?

RA: Well, technically!

Q. You are from Malaysia but also Singapore as well. How do you see the Singapore Grand Prix?

RA: I think it is one of the best on the calendar as well. Just having family from Singapore helps. I am assured support in one form or the other. It is just next to Malaysia so we represent Asia to a certain degree and we hope we will be able to push our name, our brand, into the region.

Q. There are rumours of a name change but also a change of location for the team, whatever it might be called. It has been for so long in Norfolk it is difficult to imagine that Team Lotus will be elsewhere.

RA: I'll take the one question first which is the location. Our home in Norfolk, in Norwich in Hingham, and that is, for sure, never going to change. That will be maintained as one of our parts but as a team that is growing and progressing we need to have a look at how to get more efficiencies out of the team and one of the main areas is to be in the motorsports belt of the UK. It is something we are looking into and when the time is right we will make the necessary announcement. But for sure Hingham is our home.

Q. Will you keep facilities there?

RA: Yes, we bought the place and it is home for us. We will never go away. On your second point?

Q. The name change?

RA: Name change. No decision as yet. We are still Team Lotus as you can see but as my shareholders have mentioned we are open to anything and we will see how it progresses from this point.

Q. Gerard, we hear about new facilities and new investment in the team. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Gerard LOPEZ: Yes, we essentially wanted to bring the place we are in right now, Enstone, up to the best standards in Formula One and it was missing a couple of things. One was the wind tunnel, which was still only 50 per cent scale. The second one was the driver simulator and then also a couple of logistical areas so we have decided essentially to expand the factory. Improve the wind tunnel up to 60 per cent, which is the maximum allowed and build the new simulator.

Q. Is that really state-of-the-art or even better than anybody else's?

GL: I think everybody else that is a state-of-the-art team has the 60 per cent tunnel so I think that is matching essentially the best. On the simulator, as far as we know, it is probably going to be one of the very best simulators in the business.

Q. Are there plans for further investment?

GL: We have to invest every day essentially, just because it is a Formula One team so things become obsolete quite quickly. I think we have maxed out in terms of personnel. When we took over there were about 480 people. There are 520 I believe now, so we increase that number. The investments will continue essentially as much as we need to, to try and be where we want to be, which is a top three team in Formula One.

Q. Your third driver is the new GP2 champion Romain Grosjean. What are your plans for him?

GL: It's a question that I need to take from a different angle, also of a management company that manages his career. I think the plans for a GP 2 winner, especially one that wins it in such a convincing manner, is to be in Formula One. We are going to try and help him sit in a Formula One car next year.

Q. Actually you were in a difficult position until quite recently of having five drivers for two cars potentially.

GL: And more. There's people that are interested just in case. But right now we have a commitment to Robert (Kubica). He has done amazing things for the team. We know what he is capable of and I think any team would take him if he is capable of delivering the same thing. Our commitment is to try and see if he can come back and we will wonder about anything else afterwards.

Q. Sam, a sad moment for you isn't it, leaving Williams?

Sam MICHAEL: It's been a great 11 seasons with them. I think they were such a prestigious name and it has been an honour to work with Frank (Williams) and Patrick (Head). This weekend is the last race and the main thing for me is that we finish everything off properly which we are doing. I leave Williams with a very good relationship with the company. I have nothing but good memories of the place but it is time for a change after so many seasons.

Q. When exactly do you join McLaren?

SM: That's not decided yet. That is something being discussed privately so it's not really appropriate to go into that here.

Q. But you've got a bit of gardening leave have you?

SM: Well, as I said, I better not discuss that here.

Q. Tell us about the technical challenges of this circuit?

SM: Well it's a street circuit, so it has very low grip. There is always a lot of oil on the circuit so you always get a lot of progression of lap time during the weekend as the Formula One tyres pick up a lot of the debris and contaminants on the surface. It is similar to Monte Carlo, which is like that as well. The most important thing is slow-speed corners, getting rid of understeer, making sure traction is good. There are no real high-speed corners compared to a normal closed circuit. It's a maximum downforce track and quite a few kerbs as well around this place. You can do a lot of damage there. Normally quite difficult to overtake around a track like this but with DRS and the tyre situation there should be plenty of overtaking on Sunday.

Q. Is it a little less bumpy than before?

SM: The track itself is. The actual tarmac, but the kerbs are just as big. They are hitting the kerbs even harder now.

Q. We have seen quite a lot of bits and pieces coming off most cars.

SM: That's right. A lot of that is because they are trying to take more and more kerb as there is lap time in it.

Q. is that something we have seen today or are we going to see that for the rest of the weekend?

SM: Well I think today you will see a lot more of it as the drivers are trying to find out how far they can go and how much damage they can get away with. Then tonight you will repair your car and tell them where you can and can't drive.

Q. Norbert, Michael Schumacher's performances over the past couple of grands prix. Two fifth places.

Norbert HAUG: Well I think he was excellent in the last two races. He was very good in some of the other ones, probably not at the right position. Our current car is not capable of doing a much better job and I think especially in the races, especially after the starts, nobody overtook more cars than Michael did in the first lap. He is an excellent starter, still a fantastic racer and the more we improve our technical package the more he will deliver. I think we know from Nico (Rosberg) what he is capable of doing so we have a very strong driver combination. I think a lot of people got excited in Monza. It was fantastic to watch and the guys like us who like racing enjoyed it very much. I can understand Martin (Whitmarsh). I had a word with him afterwards. I can understand Lewis (Hamilton) but if they had been in our position they would not have acted differently and I guess 99 per cent of the television viewers enjoyed it. Probably more than that.

Q. Do you expect those sort of performances to continue for the final six races or was that just the two ow downforce circuits?

NH: Well it certainly fitted much better to the current package we are having. This race here in Singapore, first of all it is a fantastic event I have to say and hopefully it stays forever on the calendar. It is producing the most spectacular television pictures. It is so unique and we all have to thank the organisers and Bernie (Ecclestone) for making this event happen. But it is a challenging track. It probably looks not such a typical street course but you could see what happened today. The walls are very close. The drivers push to the limits. We discussed that right now so I think there will be a lot of surprises here. For us, it will be challenging. We made a good step between first practice and second practice. We're heading in the right direction. Hopefully there is a little bit more to come but we honestly cannot expect a Monza or a Spa like performance under normal circumstances. But, having said that, this race will have safety cars probably. You need to be there. There is a chance of rain, whatever, so that can be quite a mix up in the field and we need to be prepared. Michael will deliver. There is no doubt he is as committed as ever. I think we have to see that he was outside of Formula One for three years. The formula changed a lot. There is no testing and so on and so on. He gets more mileage and he gets better and better and I think not a lot of drivers could have done a better job than he did in the last two races. His race speed, if you compare it to Nico, looks very balanced and Nico is - and I think Sam can describe that as well – certainly one of the most talented, most experienced ones. One of the definitely top five drivers and if you can compare yourself after a comeback, after a break of three years, with one of the young superstars, then you are heading in the right direction. For me it is a little strange to say Michael will create surprises because he won everything, he won more than anybody else, but believe me the better our car goes the more he will deliver and he is fully committed. He is an asset to the team, doing a fantastic job, keeping the together, motivating everybody and we are 100 per cent pleased to have him with us.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Joris Fioriti – Agence France Presse) A question to all of you. What do you think of Sebastian Vettel's performances this year. Don't you think that his domination harmed the sport a little bit and would you want him in your team?

RF: Let's take it a step at a time. I think Sebastian has done a fantastic job this year as have Red Bull and it is up to the rest of the teams to challenge them. I don't think Red Bull should be asked to slow down. We need to get our act together and to be competing with them so hat's off to them and well done. There have been many, many years when a driver has dominated or a team has dominated so I think you have got to look at the overall package this year of racing and I think it's been outstanding across the board. I think the show is probably the best it's been for a long, long time. The fact that one team and one driver has dominated I don't think has detracted from that. Would I like Sebastian in our car? I think we have got two or three rather good drivers. I am quite happy with what we have thank you.

JC: I hope that when Sebastian will have the title, if it is this grand prix or the nest grand prix, he will push a little bit more as I am sure the race will be more interesting at the end. For Renault, it is difficult to ask the engineer to slow down the engine or blow up the engine. I don't think so.

RA: Well he has done a fantastic job again. I think it is also the team that has done their part. Again, their domination I refer to Bob's point. We have seen domination and it is up to us to push ourselves. We are from behind but we hope to achieve some sort of success in the future. On him being a part of our team, I don't think we can afford it, but we have got a good couple of drivers right now and we are happy with what we have and we will push on from there.

GL: I would concur – not trying to be boring – but I think they have the best car and they have somebody who can use it to the maximum, so he deserves to be where he is. I actually know him quite well for a long time already, so I can pretty much tell you that he deserves to be where he is today. And I will say the same thing as far as the drivers go: we have drivers that we like but he's a great guy.

SM: I think he's done a fantastic job for the second year in a row now. It's not the races when Red Bull are dominant, it's the ones when they are not that show that he's really something special. He's won races when perhaps maybe they shouldn't have won and he's managed to drag... although the car's clearly very good, they haven't been dominant at every single circuit and some of the races that I've seen him win this year have been pretty impressive. So definitely hats off, he's deserved it.

NH: Sebastian is certainly a very special guy, very talented guy. I've known him since his early days in Formula BMW ADAC, the supporting races of DTM. Then he was a Formula Three driver with Paul di Resta. He learned a lot, he's a very focused guy, a very intelligent guy, a very demanding guy and an absolutely nice chap. We absolutely have to take our hats off to him. He's great, he deserves every single point he has got, probably more because he was unlucky here and there and he deserves what he has got. I don't think that the World Championship isn't interesting; in fact I think that this is one of the most thrilling seasons ever and I've been around for quite a while. The Pirellis have done a good job, the DRS has done a good job, there have been lots of surprises. There was Jenson Button being last in Canada for example, and then winning, doing lap times two seconds quicker than anybody else all of a sudden. There was Michael's performance there, as an example. I could continue for hours. There were lots of surprises in Formula One this year, which nobody would have expected, even the specialists. There was always a certain dominance in Formula One. There were the Williams days, I remember, the McLaren-Mercedes days, the battles with Ferrari and now it's the Red Bull days with Sebastian and also Mark doing a good job. But for sure, no dominance will last forever. We know that from the past. Everybody else will work very hard. We have a good relationship with Sebastian, friendship, I respect him very much and I think it's the same the other way around. We are, as I pointed out, very satisfied with the drivers we have. We want to climb up the ladder with the combination that we have, make another step next year and then we will see where we are.

Q. (Mat Coch – pitpass.com) Now that you've had a couple of weeks to reflect on the Sky - BBC TV deals, how do you guys see it affecting your businesses in relation to marketing and sponsorship?

RF: I think we need a little bit of time for it to evolve with Sky. I think we're going to see a different format and a lot more depth and it's very difficult, at this point, to really appreciate what they are going to do. If you listen to the plans, they are very, very exciting. I understand it from a UK point of view that the free-to-air is challenged a little bit but I think there will be different levels of the sport now and different elements that Sky will bring to it which should be very, very exciting. I think we need to give them a little time. I don't think it's fair to judge until we've seen the sort of product that they're coming out with.

NH: I think you need to see things right: it was BBC taking the decision if I'm informed correctly and I think it was a great job from Bernie, from Sky, from everybody else to step in and now we will see what the development will bring, but of course the initiative from the BBC. It was not the commercial rights holder selling non-free-to-air and I think that it is very important to keep that in mind. I can understand the BBC's position but the basic plan was a different one. It's a good combination still. I think pay TV…this channel in England is completely different, for example, to Germany. I heard that they have ten million or whatever subscribers so basically you can have a lot of viewers. But I'm not qualified to judge that in detail, but I think it is important to realise how it all started.

Q. (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Riad, if I understand it correctly, if you finish in the top ten again this year as you did last year, you move up a column which obviously brings certain financial benefits under Concorde. But by the same token, you have more to lose if you change your team's name, unless you get permission from everybody. How are you going to tackle that juggling act if you do change your team's name?

RA: I guess there is a process that we all have to go through but as I highlighted, it is a process that we will undertake if and when the decision is made but it's something that hasn't happened yet so I can't comment.

Q. (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Are you confident that you will get that permission?

RA: I've got no motion of doing anything right now in terms of changing the name or anything like that so I can't comment.

Q. (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Gerard, on the one side we are hearing about massive investments as we heard about early on; on the other side we're hearing stories of doom and gloom about bank loans and bankruptcies and all sorts of things: selling the team, Group Lotus wanting to buy the team. Could you clarify these issues please?

GL: It's been one of the surprises for me in Formula One. The fact that any time we have a new driver, any time we announce something, any time I take a trip to Brazil or Russia or whatever, suppose I'm looking for money for the team. The fact is that we're involved in a lot of businesses. This one, as a matter of fact, is one that we hope is going to be break-even at some point in time. It's not but it's not one that needs to make money for us. We make money somewhere else. I used to answer this giving examples and so on. To be honest, I don't care any more because if it was reality we wouldn't be there for a long time. I think the team that we took over had about 480 people. We saved those jobs and added about forty jobs to those. Facts speak for themselves. As I said, I used to get quite angry every time I would pick up something like that. Now it's almost like crying wolf and nobody cares. The fact is that the facts are there: we are investing, we're adding sponsors. Our drivers, whenever they get called pay drivers, I actually feel bad for them, not for us because at the end of the day, there is no driver that I think or I hope could bring enough money to actually carry this kind of team forward. I find it disrespectful to those guys. I used to find it disrespectful to us, to be honest with you. Now I don't any more so now what we do is we get on with the things that we have to do. We make the investments that we have to make and at the end of the day we will see – in terms of results – what will be in the future and hopefully we will be wherever our investments carry us, which is to be one of the top three teams.

Q. (Mat Coch – pitpass.com) Sorry, carrying on from my previous question, at the moment there is about 97 percent of people in the UK that watch Formula One on free-to-air TV. Some numbers that we've gathered in the last couple of weeks show that only about seven percent of those viewers are going to be interesting buying a subscription. Does that not hurt your sponsors and their interests in the team and their expectations of their payback?

RF: Probably just coming back onto that is that you've been very focused on the UK. It's a global market. Obviously we want to make sure our fans in the UK are serviced as well as possible, but at the end of the day, it was the BBC that made a decision. Bernie put together a super compromise. There will still be the ability to watch it on BBC and watch every race, but then you've got the added value… I'm not so sure your numbers are going to be right when it comes down to the real agenda. I think you will find that a lot of people will switch over.

NH: I'm not a specialist in that market but you need to apply the right facts. Where does the figure of seven percent come from? If I'm informed correctly, you can watch each and every Grand Prix free-to-air, this is still the case, and so maybe it's an addition, if it's played in the correct way. We have to wait and see but there was no alternative.

Q. But basically you're not worried about your sponsorship?

NH: No.

Q. (Chris Lyons – Associated Press) Sam, I know your interest is much more on the sporting side than on the financial side of things, but on a broad principle, Williams going forward in the years to come – not just next year but in the years to come – are they in a situation where they will be able to make decisions on drivers based purely upon what they bring to team in terms of ability or is Williams in that situation now where it's got to look more towards sponsorship and the financial aspects rather than just pure talent?

SM: If you take the first part of your question about Williams financially, they are obviously entering a lot of different areas of their business such as WHP with the hybrid power system – that's standing out to be a very… an industry that's going to open up a lot over the next few years. They already have contracts with major motor manufacturers, so that's one area that's quite strong. They're obviously investing pretty heavily in Qatar. There's the new Jaguar programme as well. There's lots of different areas that Williams is diversifying into to ensure… which a lot of other teams have done as well. McLaren is a good example, earlier than Williams, and that will continue to be more and more profitable as years go on. That will help Williams put themselves into a good position. Other teams have done it, there's nothing to say that Williams can't either so I can't see that that will be an issue for them in the future. With respect to their finances, if you then come to their drivers, if you look at the two drivers this year. We've got Rubens who is obviously an experienced guy, a multiple Grand Prix winner. Although Pastor Maldonado is a rookie, he's GP2 champion and he's run pretty close to Rubens all year. If you take out the first four or five races, which is entirely normal for any rookie, I would normally say that a rookie needs a couple of years, but you can definitely start to see the signs as to whether the guy is capable or not by mid-season and I would definitely put Pastor Maldonado in that category. And if he wasn't in that category, he wouldn't have kept his drive going forward. So I can see the guy having an even stronger year next year when he knows all the circuits, because he's still on a slope. He'd never turned a lap around here before this evening, so I would say that to say that Williams are taking their decisions on drivers from a financial point of view is not really correct at the moment, because otherwise they wouldn't be choosing the drivers that they have. I think Williams will make the choices that are best for the company and the best results. That's what it will come down to.

Q. (Dieter Rencken – The Citizen) Question to Norbert and Jean-Francois regarding engines, both at the moment and 2014 onwards. We used to have a situation where there was a maximum number of teams that an engine supplier could supply. In 2014, we could possibly have as many as five manufacturers supplying twelve teams and when you look at it, somehow five into twelve doesn't work that well, particularly when you've got one manufacturer supplying four teams with engines. What do you people think the maximum should be allowed, both from a sporting and a financial, commercial point of view?

NH: For me it should be an open market, that's it, basically. I hope we're in a position to have five engine manufacturers, that would be very pleasing for all of us, I think. This is even more competition, but maybe we have less than five, we will see. It doesn't look bad at the moment. The rules are heading in the right direction; over a five year period there will be lots of cost saving. All us engine manufacturers work very constructively on that point together with Ferrari and Renault, especially Cosworth also and our target is to save thirty percent budget over a five-year period which is challenging but which is achievable. For us, if five teams chose the engine X, then they should do so, it should be a free and open market. J-FC: By regulation, today it's four teams, but I share that same advice, I am pushing for an open market because we are in Formula One and regulations cannot solve all the problems. I think the key point is not how many teams, the key point is which teams because when we are dealing with top teams, it's not easy to have one or two top teams when you provide the same engine. The problem is more with who and how many teams.

[Lineker]

Why don't you say what you really think, Felipe!!

Mark Webber kept Red Bull on top of the times in final practice for the Singapore Grand Prix, as team-mate Sebastian Vettel had to settle for third place after finding traffic.

Webber's time of 1m46.081s put him just 0.027 seconds ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button, who bounced back following a difficult Friday.

Vettel, favourite for another pole position, had a low-key session and finished in third, over two tenths of a second behind Webber. The German, however, was hit by traffic during his best laps.

Fernando Alonso, a two-time winner in Singapore, put his Ferrari in fourth place, with Lewis Hamilton down in fifth place in the second McLaren. The Briton, however, was nearly a full second off the pace after damaging his car's floor when going over the kerbs during the final moments of the session.

Virgin's Jerome D'Ambrosio set the first time of the session after some 12 minutes, while all the other drivers settled for installation laps in the opening part of final practice.

Kamui Kobayashi moved to the top of the times some two minutes later, with the rest of the field starting to complete timed laps.

Button was the first of the frontrunners to complete a full lap, the Briton stopping the clock at 1m50.707s, the McLaren driver improving by over a second as he continued with his run. Button continued to stretch his gap for a few laps, posting a 1m48.412s that left him over 1.5 seconds clear of the field at the 30-minute mark.

Vettel shot to the top of the times with less than half the session to go, the world champion posting a 1m47.737s with the soft tyre compound. Alonso moved to second with a lap very much on the limit, the Spaniard having already survived a scare during his previous lap.

Vettel improved even further to stop the clock at 1m47.064s, with Michael Schumacher outpacing Alonso to jump up to second place with 20 minutes left.

Nico Rosberg was the first of the frontrunners to try the supersoft rubber, the German posting the second quickest time with around 12 minutes to go.

Despite brushing the wall, Alonso went quickest during his first run with the softer rubber, the Spaniard bettering Vettel's time by over six tenths of a second. Button was next to complete his super soft-tyre run, posting a 1m46.108s that put him on top.

The Briton was soon relegated, however, when Webber went quicker by 0.027s. Team-mate Vettel had to settle for third position in his first run with super softs after finding traffic during his lap. The world champion went for another run with the same set of tyres but decided to abort it in the end.

FP3


Pos  Driver                Team                   Time              Laps

 1.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault       1m46.081s           15

 2.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1m46.108s  + 0.027  17

 3.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault       1m46.345s  + 0.264  14

 4.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari                1m46.396s  + 0.315  14

 5.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes       1m46.936s  + 0.855  20

 6.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes               1m47.831s  + 1.750  14

 7.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes               1m47.837s  + 1.756  12

 8.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari                1m48.711s  + 2.630  12

 9.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari         1m49.057s  + 2.976  15

10.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1m49.304s  + 3.223  16

11.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari         1m49.583s  + 3.502  17

12.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m49.679s  + 3.598  18

13.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes   1m49.816s  + 3.735  18

14.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth      1m49.851s  + 3.770  17

15.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1m50.189s  + 4.108  15

16.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault                1m50.229s  + 4.148  15

17.  Bruno Senna           Renault                1m50.523s  + 4.442  14

18.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1m50.547s  + 4.466  17

19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault          1m52.510s  + 6.429  17

20.  Jerome D-Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth        1m52.697s  + 6.616  19

21.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth           1m53.728s  + 7.647  17

22.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault          1m53.823s  + 7.742  18

23.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth        1m53.829s  + 7.748  16

24.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth           1m55.203s  + 9.122  17


All Timing Unofficial[/code]




Sebastian Vettel edged a step closer to the 2011 world championship title as he delivered his 11th pole position of the season in Singapore, leading an all-Red Bull front row to keep the team's 100 per cent pole record for the year intact.



Having topped both Q1 and Q2 by half a second, Vettel carried the same margin through to the first runs of Q3, as he started the pole shoot-out with a 1m44.381s - while the McLarens and Ferraris were almost tripping over each other looking for clear space.



Vettel did not improve on his final run, but his team-mate Mark Webber could only get within 0.4s, so the German's pole was safe.



Jenson Button took third for McLaren, 0.005s ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who had picked up a puncture later in Q2 and only did one early run in Q3.



The best Ferrari could manage was fifth and sixth, ahead of Nico Rosberg's Mercedes, with Fernando Alonso a second quicker than Felipe Massa.



Force India got both cars into Q3 but chose not to run in the final segment, so fill row five. Michael Schumacher did not set a time either and starts eighth for Mercedes.



Renault's prediction of a very tough weekend came true as its drivers ended up fighting to escape from Q1. Bruno Senna was in the drop-zone before a mighty last lap got him up to 15th (where he would stay in Q2), but knocked his team-mate Vitaly Petrov down to an eliminated 18th, the Russian's time nearly a second slower than Senna's.



The Force Indias' last Q2 laps denied Sergio Perez a Q3 place and left him 11th. His Sauber team-mate Kamui Kobayashi caused a Q2 red flag when the aggressive approach he had taken to the Turn 10 chicane all weekend became rather too wild and he launched his car into the wall.



The Williams will start 12th and 13th, while the Toro Rossos qualified either side of Senna in 14th and 16th.



Heikki Kovalainen's initial Q3 run saw his Lotus ahead of Petrov and within a tenth of Buemi,though the Finn was cut adrift when he failed to improve on his last lap.



It was a similar story for HRT, which had both cars ahead of the Virgins going into the final Q1 runs, but ended up on the back row again as Timo Glock and Jerome D'Ambrosio improved. Tonio Liuzzi's five-place grid penalty for causing the Monza start mayhem will have no effect whatsoever as the Italian qualified slowest of all, 0.4s behind his Singapore debutant team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.



[code]Qualifying


Pos  Driver                Team                 Time            Gap   

 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m44.381s

 2.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m44.732s   + 0.351

 3.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m44.804s   + 0.423

 4.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m44.809s   + 0.428

 5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m44.874s   + 0.493

 6.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m45.800s   + 1.419

 7.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m46.013s   + 1.632

 8.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             no time

 9.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes no time

10.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes no time

Q2 cut-off time: 1m47.486s                                  Gap **

11.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m47.616s   + 2.685

12.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m48.082s   + 3.151

13.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m48.270s   + 3.339

14.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m48.634s   + 3.703

15.  Bruno Senna           Renault              1m48.662s   + 3.731

16.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m49.862s   + 4.931

17.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       No time

Q1 cut-off time: 1m49.588s                                    Gap *

18.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m49.835s   + 3.438

19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m50.948s   + 4.551

20.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m51.012s   + 4.615

21.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m52.154s   + 5.757

22.  Jerome D-Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m52.363s   + 5.966

23.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth         1m52.404s   + 6.007

24.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m52.810s   + 6.413


107% time: 1m53.844s


* Gap to quickest in Q1


** Gap to quickest in Q2

Sebastian Vettel hailed what he labelled as a perfect qualifying session after securing pole for the Singapore Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver grabbed his 11th pole of the year to edge closer to his second title, beating Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber to the top spot by over three tenths of a second.

Vettel, who could become the youngest ever double champion on Sunday, said after qualifying that he could have been quicker.

"In the last run I tried maybe a little bit too much at the chicane at Turn 10," said Vettel. "I decided to abort and go easy to not damage the car. I was happy with my first lap circuit and in the end it was possible to go faster.

"But all in all a perfect session. It's a big challenge, so many corners and a long lap to get everything together. We learned from the mistakes we did in qualifying last year and kept our heads cool. It's great today to have both cars in front row, so let's see tomorrow."

Today's pole means Vettel is just three away from equalling Nigel Mansell's record number of poles during a season.

The world champion said, however, that he is not thinking of that, but rather about doing the best possible job in the race tomorrow.

"I think it was pretty exceptional," he said of Mansell's record. "It was 1992, Nigel had an incredible year. We are not doing too bad this year, but it'd be wrong to start thinking about those things. We have a long race ahead of us tomorrow, that's where we score points and not in qualifying.

"It shows that every single race is another step for us. We try to focus on the moment which is the most important to get all out. We have to keep doing what we are doing, and it's not easy to do it every weekend.

"Tomorrow is the race and that is where the focus is. I still believe Nigel's record is exceptional."

FOTA chairman Martin Whitmarsh is confident that teams can make Formula 1's Resource Restriction Agreement (RRA) a success, despite fresh controversy over the deal.

In Singapore, Red Bull Racing was forced to once again deny that it breached the RRA spending limit last year en route to the world championship on the back of an investigation by Dutch consultancy firm Capgemini.

And while there remains issues in the RRA that teams are working to overcome, Whitmarsh said on Saturday that he remained confident that the document can be made to work.

He also made it clear that there was no evidence that any team in F1 had exceeded the spending limits laid down in the RRA.

"We are operating to the agreement that we signed last year," he said. "The nature of F1 is that there will be accusations, claims and concerns, but there is no evidence that anyone has shown me of any team in breach of RRA.

"I think it is a bit like technical regulations, there will be finger-pointing, suspicion, paranoia - that is the nature, and the sometimes corrosive nature of this paddock, but I think the RRA has achieved an enormous amount.

"Without it, there are teams today that would not be here. It has clearly saved a lot of money in our sport. It is very evident certainly in this team when you hear conversations about efficiency, how you get the best out of the finite resource, people, wind-tunnel time, CFD, testing, the number of people we have at the track; those are all real and tangible."

He added: "It has achieved a lot. It is not perfect, but I am sure there will always be some more adventurous interpretations and people will look for opportunity, and we have to work hard to make it work."

Pirelli reckons that the Singapore Grand Prix could turn into a strategy thriller - with those teams not having the ultimate pace of Red Bull Racing potentially trying out a different tyre tactic.

Red Bull Racing and Ferrari look to be in a class of their own in terms of out-and-out speed in Singapore judging by their form throughout practice – which makes it likely the two teams will try and maximise their opportunities on the super soft tyres with a three-stop strategy.

However, Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery thinks that other outfits may follow the route that Jenson Button tried in Monaco of trying to eke a longer stint on soft tyres – which will leave them requiring one less pitstop.

"We were surprised how well the super soft was lasting, particularly with the top teams – it was 15/16 laps – with [sebastian] Vettel looking like he had almost no degradation," said Hembery.

"But it was looking very, very steady and that was replicated with a number of the top teams. So from that point of view you would think they are going to go for a sprint strategy, maximising all the sets of the super soft and going on to the soft at the end.

"If you asked me the same question in Monaco I would have said the same, but we ended up with three different strategies among the top three.

"So maybe someone will be looking to take one pitstop out of that because they feel that it is difficult to overtake here. It should be a bit easier here but it is still relative for a street circuit, so there is going to be at a premium for track position."

Hembery also thinks it unlikely that, because of the difficulties of overtaking, there will be much temptation to try and save tyres in qualifying.

"I am sure someone will have a think about it but this is a street circuit and I have to say the grid position still has to count a huge amount. If Vettel is on pole and you save tyres then he is still going to go away.

"You are better off getting as far up for a good position – if you get a bit of luck with the safety car you can pull a result out of nowhere."

McLaren is hopeful that a solid winter and change to its infrastructure can make it a team to be 'feared' next year as it bids to end Red Bull Racing's domination of Formula 1.

With the outfit having seen its title hopes fade over the course of the season as it was unable to stop Sebastian Vettel building up a huge lead in the points standing, McLaren is focused on ensuring it responds in style next year.

And team principal Martin Whitmarsh thinks that the team can return to title glory in 2012 providing it hits the ground running at the start of the campaign.

"We need to have a quicker car at the beginning of the year," said Whitmarsh ahead of qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix.

"I think the guys are working hard, each year - the nature of F1 is that it is cyclical as you know. It comes and goes.

"McLaren is a great team that can recover from a bad start, many teams cannot do that, but it is much better not having to recover from a bad start. We have produced winning cars many times before, we have a great team of guys, engineers, and we are very focused on doing it for next year."

He added: "We have been racing for quite a few years, we have built cars quicker than Red Bulls in the past and we can do it in the future.

"I don't have the obsession that some of you have with Red Bull. Our job is that there is a set of technical regulations, we have to work very, very hard creatively and minimise risk and anything that absorbs too much time and energy, and make sure we have a very quick car from the get go. I think that is what we are aiming to do.

"What Red Bull are doing, or Ferrari, or Mercedes, or any other teams should not be our focus; it is actually how we believe we can make the best car to win races."

McLaren has signed outgoing Williams technical director Sam Michael to be its new sporting director next season, and Whitmarsh believes he will add strength to the outfit

"I think you are always going to be working to improve the team," he said. "We are delighted that he is coming here. He is coming as sporting director – so it is a career directional change for him. He has been on the technical side, being a race engineer of Jordan, being technical director at Williams, but we made a proposal in saying that perhaps his strength lies in working operationally in the field with the race team.

"So his job is quite simply as sporting director to make sure McLaren is the best and most feared racing team in the world."

Red Bull Racing, Virgin and Mercedes GP fell foul of Formula 1's curfew regulations on Friday night after marketing personnel from the teams entered the Singapore track.

F1's rules state that no 'team personnel who are associated in any way with the operation of the cars are permitted within the confines of the circuit' for a set period during the overnight hours.

In Singapore, because of the night race timetable, this period ran from 9.30am on Saturday morning to 4pm - three hours before the start of final practice.

However, the FIA said that marketing personnel from the three outfits – which it says were 'associated with the operation of the car' – were in the circuit during the exclusion period.

Teams are allowed four exceptions to the curfew over the course of the season, and while this was Mercedes GP's first breach and Virgin Racing's second, Red Bull Racing has now used up three of its curfews – with five races remaining.

Scuderia Toro Rosso broke the curfew ahead of Friday practice after team principal Franz Tost arrived in the paddock too early.

Mercedes GP team principal Ross Brawn has called for a clarification of Formula 1's curfew regulations, after his team was one of three outfits caught out when marketing staff entered the track early at the Singapore Grand Prix.

The Brackley-based outfit joined Red Bull Racing and Virgin Racing in using up one of its four allowable curfews when it was discovered that marketing staff from the three outfits entered the circuit the track during a prohibited time.

Brawn believes that the curfew has worked well so far this season, but he does not understand why marketing staff are classified by the FIA as 'associated with the operation of the car.'

When asked by AUTOSPORT about the curfew issue, Brawn said: "I think there is a little bit of confusion that we just need to tidy up.

"The teams' perspective is that we have the crew of 47, which includes engineers and the various people working on the car, and the reason for the curfew was to make sure that that team, once it was reduced in size, did not get overworked.

"We didn't want to have a situation where that crew worked for a solid 48 hours because of course, if you constrict the size of the team and you don't change the workload, then all you do is work longer hours.

"I think the curfew has worked very well. Everybody's understanding was that it applies to the 47 people, which is a list that is generated and everybody knows who they are and they were people who abide by the curfew.

"In our case, a couple of our marketing commercial girls came to meet some guests at 3.30pm rather than 4pm and broke the curfew, so that is something that we need to discuss with the FIA to tidy up. I cannot quite see an objective in having a curfew for marketing staff. It is something that does need tidying up; I think it is just a misunderstanding."

The unusual timetable at the Singapore GP due to it being a night race has meant the curfew has been imposed at irregular hours - which caught out Scuderia Toro Rosso team principal Franz Tost, who arrived too early for work on Friday.

Toro Rosso technical chief Giorgio Ascanelli was pleased to see both his cars reach Q2 in Singapore - but reckons they were assisted by other teams' problems and are slower than the result suggested.

Sebastien Buemi took 14th on the grid, two places ahead of team-mate Jaime Alguersuari. Both had lost track time after incidents on Friday.

"So far, we have had a couple of eventful days and although we got both cars into Q2, we are not in that good shape," said Ascanelli.

"Our grid positions owe something to [Kamui] Kobayashi's unfortunate accident and the problems of others. We have lost pace compared to Monza.

"Due to the lack of track time yesterday because of Seb's accident, for which I do not blame him and Jaime's technical problem, there are a couple of set-up solutions we were unable to exploit. Because of this, we had to concentrate more on race preparation this morning and less on qualifying.

"In addition, we ran a technical solution yesterday that Jaime found to his liking, but I took the decision we could not run it for the rest of the weekend, as we had a problem with it. Therefore today, he did not have the same level of confidence in the car.

"As for Sebastien, he has had a less complicated time, giving him greater confidence in the car and he drove well, putting together a good lap, so we can be happy with him for that."

But despite his disappointment with Toro Rosso's pace today, Ascanelli thinks it will be in better shape in race trim.

"What a driver needs here more than anything is confidence, therefore, as we make up for the time lost, I do believe we can be in better shape for the race tomorrow, especially because of the fact we focused more on race set-up today," he said.

Jenson Button admitted he did not expect to be able to qualify so high up on the grid for the Singapore Grand Prix after a difficult Friday.

The McLaren driver lost a lot of valuable track time in the opening day's practice following a problem with his gearbox which meant he was unable to complete long runs.

That means Button will start tomorrow's race without knowing how well the tyres will behave in the race.

The Briton was nonetheless pleased with his performance in qualifying and conceded he did not expect to be so strong.

"I think last night I didn't expect to be here," said Button. "We made a lot of changes overnight and we got quite a lot of improvements. The pace was good all day.

"We found it a little bit difficult in qualifying to get the tyres working for a whole lap: if had them working in first sector they had gone off in third. We had to do a reasonably slow out lap, but maybe I got too excited and pushed too hard in the first sector as the tyres were off in final sector.

"I'm happy to be third, on the clean side of the track. The worry is tomorrow as haven't driven with heavy fuel."

He added: "I didn't get much running yesterday, so I am pleased to be in top three and it is a good position for the race tomorrow."

Button's team-mate Lewis Hamilton will start from fourth position.

Michael Schumacher is hopeful that having not run in the final qualifying segment will pay off in the Singapore Grand Prix tomorrow.

The German Mercedes driver decided to save super soft tyres for the race and did not go out during Q3, finishing eighth on the grid as the Force Indias did not run either.

Schumacher said the decision not to run was a "risk worth taking".

"It was quite a tactical qualifying session, in which we chose not to run in Q3 to save new tyres for the race," said Schumacher.

"In theory, this should be worth some time over the race distance, so it was a calculated risk worth taking.

"As we all know from the past, a lot of incidents can happen during the Singapore Grand Prix, so I will certainly go for any opportunity which might occur. I will definitely keep my fingers crossed for Sebastian to clinch his second world title here tomorrow."

Team-mate Nico Rosberg qualified in seventh position and, unlike Schumacher, he decided to use all his tyres in order to try and beat Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

In the end Rosberg failed to do so, but believes it was the right decision to try.

"I had a good fast lap in Q3 and we were able to take the most out of the car today so I'm quite satisfied," he said. "Starting in seventh place was the maximum that we could have achieved, although Massa was very close so it was definitely worth trying to catch him.

"Being on the clean side at the grid gives me a good position for the start, so I will try to make up positions there and score some good points. I think it will be an exciting race here with all the new things like DRS and the Pirelli tyres."

Kamui Kobayashi is aiming to reward his Sauber team in the Singapore Grand Prix after apologising for crashing during qualifying on Saturday.

The Japanese driver crashed against the wall at Turn 10 after jumping over the chicane during his first run in the second qualifying segment.

The crash caused a red flag and meant Kobayashi qualified in 17th position after failing to set a time.

Kobayashi was sorry for the accident, and is now hoping to pay his team back in the race.

I ended up in the wall in Q2 and the accident was my fault," said Kobayashi. "I feel very sorry for the team. I took too much kerb in turn 10, the car jumped too high and this was the outcome.

"I saw a chance to fight for Q3, but it didn't work out. I was taken to the medical centre and was quite surprised at how carefully they checked me. However, physically I'm absolutely fine. I will do my utmost tomorrow to fight for points and give something back to the team."

Rookie team-mate Sergio Perez had a strong day, qualifying in 11th position after just missing the cut to go into Q3.

"Overall I am pleased with our qualifying performance today, although it is a shame not to have made it into Q3, as it was very close," he said. "My lap in Q2 wasn't really perfect, the one in Q1 was actually better, as I felt more traction then.

"Nevertheless I'm very confident for tomorrow, as we normally have a strong race pace. The circuit is very technical and a driver can easily make a mistake, or with a good performance make a difference. I strongly believe I will finish in the points tomorrow."

Lewis Hamilton said he was not too frustrated by the fuelling problem that ended his Singapore Grand Prix qualifying early, as he is confident that his McLaren's race pace will allow him to quickly move up from fourth.

The Briton was only able to get one early run in during Q3 as the team was unable to get sufficient fuel into the car for a second attempt. He had been a provisional second on the grid, but was pushed back to fourth as Mark Webber (Red Bull) and his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button improved.

"We came in, tried to refuel the car and had a fuelling problem so they couldn't do it," said Hamilton.

"We were running out of time bit by bit, and they just couldn't get enough fuel in the car, so we were too late to go again and unfortunately weren't able to get the second run.

"But these things happen and the team did the best job they could. We're not in a bad position.

"I think we probably could've been on the front row, I think we had a little bit more time in the bag, so that's positive for tomorrow."

He added: "The pace is good, I feel good. From fourth we can only go forwards."

Hamilton had made it through to Q3 despite a scare in Q2 when he picked up a puncture while only just inside the cut-off point in eighth.

"I think I went over a kerb and they said it lost pressure immediately," he explained.

"There are lots of bolts hanging out of the kerbs, that's what they've been having problems with all weekend, so maybe that's it."

He also escaped a near-miss with Felipe Massa's Ferrari at the start of Q3 as both jostled to find clear track.

"The guys always try to back you up and I was ready to get going," Hamilton said.

"I was trying to get past, and he was blocking and blocking and blocking. Eventually I got past.

"My lap was pretty good but I got held up behind Fernando [Alonso] - I was about a second behind Fernando at the end, so I lost a little bit in my second sector."

Felipe Massa hit out at Lewis Hamilton after the pair nearly collided ahead of their final qualifying runs at the Singapore Grand Prix.

Hamilton was trying to get ahead of Massa to get a clear lap in Q3, and he tried to dive inside the Ferrari at Turn 19 - but the pair nearly came together.

Massa finally let Hamilton through as he backed off to get himself in clear air behind Fernando Alonso who was ahead of him on the track - but he was distinctly unimpressed with his rival's driving.

When asked by AUTOSPORT to talk through what happened with Hamilton, Massa said: "Maybe you need to ask him. To be honest I don't understand what he wanted to do.

"Three cars were going slow to prepare the lap and he was trying to...I don't know. Ask him. To be in a condition to touch someone on the out lap? And do another mistake? I think he didn't use his mind again."

Massa reckons the incident had ruined his own preparation for the qualifying lap.

"Yes, a little bit, but anyway I am sure he didn't prepare his lap as well, so to be honest I don't understand it," he said. "You just need to ask him because maybe he thinks differently to what is the right direction."

Although Ferrari's qualifying pace was less than the team had expected after an encouraging opening day of practice, Massa still felt that there were opportunities for a good result in the race thanks to the likelihood of high degradation.

"We need to wait and see," he said. "For sure the degradation is high for everybody, so I hope we have good degradation tomorrow. We will see in the first stint, but now it is difficult to say. I hope we have a good degradation and, if that is the case, then I hope the race can be better."

"We expect to have a consistent car and I hope we have. It is not so bad the long runs we did, but I saw also the long run from Sebastian. He was very strong, very consistent, so we wait and see tomorrow how it is going to be, and then we can be a little bit more sure."

Vitaly Petrov said it was only a small mistake that left him 18th on the Singapore Grand Prix grid, and now hopes Renault can rescue his race hopes with an innovative strategy.

The Russian was knocked out in Q1 after his team-mate Bruno Senna made a big gain on his final lap - Petrov having made an error on his best effort.

"To be honest, it was not 100 per cent a mistake," said Petrov.

"It looks like a mistake because I didn't do something magic - I didn't brake late or try to take more speed into the corner or anything like this, I just lost the rear at Turn 13, and there are a lot of bumps there.

"Even on the data, I didn't try to attack too much. I was maybe a little bit harder than normal then tried to keep speed a little bit late, and suddenly I just lost the rear.

"Then of course when the rear slides, the tyre temperatures come up, and in the last sector I lost one second compared to Bruno.

"For this track and with these tyres, when you have a little slide, tyre pressures come up, and then you cannot do anything."

Although Renault had always anticipated a tough Singapore GP given its issues at other high-downforce tracks - and the disappointment of having to remove a bodywork upgrade due to overheating issues on Friday - Petrov admitted that 18th was worse than he feared.

But he was confident the poor result was a blip and that the Japanese GP would bring more encouragement.

"Even before [the weekend] I said I knew it would be quite tough for us, very, very tough, but I believed we could still do something, but it looks like what Bruno did today was the maximum," said Petrov.

"At Suzuka I think we can easily come back into the top 10 again, that is my feeling."

He is optimistic that having extra sets of tyres left over will allow him to gain ground with an alternative strategy in the race.

"Of course, from my position I have two sets of new tyres," he said.

"We will try to do something different to everyone around us, but I do not know what I can do.

"The team need to do a good strategy to try to jump people all the time. I think with these tyres we have left, we can do something."

The Force India drivers say they had no qualms about not running in Q3 in Singapore in order to save tyres for the race.

Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta made it to the pole shoot-out but did not leave the pits, so will start ninth and 10th.

Pirelli motorsport chief Paul Hembery felt there was no need for such tactics in Singapore.

"It is disappointing," he told AUTOSPORT. "We have tried to come up with some ideas to resolve that, and it is a great shame for the fans that that is happening, there is no real reason for it to be honest, and I don't see how it will affect race strategy as there are plenty of tyres available, so it is disappointing for the fans that they don't get to see cars running."

But Sutil defended the decision, saying eschewing a Q3 run gave the team a much better chance of a strong race.

"I'm not going to say what I'll do tomorrow. That's my secret, but I hope I have the right strategy, of course," he said.

"It's going to be hard for the tyres but also with more rubber on the circuit it should be better.

"I can still choose my tyre set for tomorrow, so that's another good point for not going out. I still have the choice and I can sit down with my engineers and talk about the best strategy for us.

"Saving tyres is very important and there was no need for us to run. It was our decision and I'm happy with our decision. I think it was clear."

The Force Indias will start behind the Mercedes, and Sutil was open-minded about their chances of attacking Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher in the race.

"Maybe it's possible. It's going to be difficult," he said. "Our qualifying pace is quite a bit slower [compared] to them but in the race sometimes we are a bit faster and less aggressive on the tyres. So let's see. Anything can happen tomorrow."

Di Resta agreed that Mercedes could be tough to overcome.

"I'm hoping they're going to have a lot of degradation, like sometimes they can have," he said.

"Their performance was quite strong in terms of lap time, they seem about a second quicker. How much that will close up on high fuel, time will tell, but we'll give it our best shot.

"Equally, Sauber behind us look strong, because that was fairly close."

The Scot missed much of practice with hydraulic and brake issues on Friday, and admitted there would be a lot of unknown quantities for him going into the race.

"You can analyse it as much as you want, but in my circumstance we're going into a dark hole really because we haven't done any high-fuel runs," he said. "We haven't got any tyre wear data on my car, we can only reference the other chassis."

Post-qualifying press conference:

TV UNILATERALS

Q. Sebastian: a fantastic performance and another pole position, your 11th of the season. How was it from where you were sitting?

Sebastian VETTEL: The circuit ramped up in the end a little bit. I think it was possible to go faster but, all in all, a perfect session and I am very happy, especially around here as it is a fun track. A big challenge. It is very difficult. So many corners. Such a long lap to get everything together, but I think we learned especially from the mistakes we did last year in qualifying and kept our heads cool and did it today. It is great. We have both cars on the front row. Let's see tomorrow. It is a very, very long race.

Q. Mark, almost a grandstand finish from yourself. You were within touching distance of Seb for two-thirds of your final qualifying lap so is this smiles for a front-row start or a frown for a pole that got away.

Mark WEBBER: No, I think I am pretty happy to be honest. It has been a pretty testing venue for me in the past, particularly on Saturdays. In the races I normally go a bit better around here. Seb obviously laid it down pretty hard and fast for all of us. He is very quick around here and did a great job for the pole. I think it is pretty rare that he makes a mistake. I think maybe he saw my data and there were a few corners I was a little bit quicker and maybe in the chicane he was trying to put it altogether and get it altogether. But he was very quick for the whole lap. To put it altogether for the whole lap is very challenging for all of us here. It is very easy to grab a bit more and then lose a bit on the next straight so overall satisfied given the curve balls the teams can face around here. Both cars up there is a great result for us.

Q. Jenson, you hooked it up enough by five one-thousands-of-a-second to leapfrog Lewis Hamilton. He sat in the garage while you were out doing a final qualifying run. He saved a set of tyres. You start ahead of him. What's more important?

Jenson BUTTON: I don't know really. I haven't really thought about it. All I know is that for me the lap was good. Both my laps. If I had put both of them together it would have been good but it is very difficult around here as you struggle to get all three sectors together because either the tyres aren't warm enough at the start of the lap or they are overheating at the end. Or maybe that is just our problem. It is very, very tricky and something I have been fighting all day. Obviously I didn't get much running yesterday after facing a barrier at the end of the session yesterday, so I am pleased to be in the top three. It is a good position for the race tomorrow but it is also something I have no experience of, as I didn't do any high-fuel running, so it is going to be a challenge.

Q. Sebastian, that is 11 pole positions this season so far. Nigel Mansell has the record with 14 in a season. Are you thinking about beating that record yet?

SV: No, I think it was pretty exceptional. I think it was 1992 Nigel had that incredible year. We are not doing too bad this year, but I think it is wrong to start thinking about those things. We have got a long race ahead of us tomorrow. That's where we usually score points, not in qualifying, so the focus is on the race tomorrow. But I think it shows that really every single race is another step for us and we try to focus on the moment. I think it is the most important. To get all out every single time sounds easy. We have to keep on doing what we are doing, but it is not so easy to do it every weekend. As I said tomorrow is the race and that's where the focus is. I still believe that Nigel's record is exceptional.

PRESS CONFERENCE

Q. Sebastian, tell us about the lap and the satisfaction of being on pole here. I can imagine this is almost more satisfaction than any other circuit.

SV: Yeah, it is in a way. I think it is an exceptional track for us. Either you like it or you hate it. I think the secret is maybe a bit of both. It is a very long track. A lot of corners. Just 23 corners as a number is already incredible compared to some tracks. The last race we had 11, so it is double the amount of corners and it's a long lap. The speed is fairly low which is what you expect on a street circuit. Stop and go really but it is so difficult, so challenging to put it altogether as every single corner you try to get the best out of the car, out of the tyres and then it is give and take. You try to take a little bit more out of the car and then and then you have to sacrifice for the next corner for maybe the next straight and so on so a lot of thinking going on and difficult if you really operate the car on the limit to get it close to 100 per cent every corner. It really matches with the next corner and the next corner. That's why I think the satisfaction generally you get when you cross the line here is big, when you know it has been a good lap and the other way around if it wasn't and you give yourself quite some grief. You know that you could have done so much better as it is so easy to lose time and not just a couple of hundredths. It is immediately within a couple of tenths that you lose so it's a nice challenge.

Q. And then you have got to do 61 laps of it tomorrow?

SV: Yes, it is going to be long. The race is always around two hours here. It is the longest we have, so on top of it they switch off the lights, as the sun is down. Switch on the lights of course. It is a night race, very humid and I think we all lose quite a lot of water. A lot of sweating and it will be a difficult one.

Q. You said yesterday that you needed a good step overnight. So how much was done and how much did you have to change?

SV: Well, the target is always to improve the car overnight. I was fairly happy with the car yesterday and we didn't do that much. I think the steps we did were a step forward. Not massive but probably what we needed to keep that cushion, so all in all I was very happy on the prime tyre and the soft tyre as well. This morning was a bit scrappy as I had a lot of traffic and didn't get the lap together but this afternoon the first run on option was a confirmation that also on the super soft tyres we can do it so reasonably confident for tomorrow. As I said it is going to be a long race and it is not just about speed, it is also about control, managing the tyres. At this stage I think it is a bit unclear what is the fastest way but we will find out tomorrow.

Q. Mark, your best grid position here and similarly you said you needed more pace.

MW: Yes, overnight we made a pretty good step. But most of it was from me to be honest. It is a very, very challenging venue. Not one I would pick to come to every week, but it's my job to deliver on all the tracks we go to. It is one of my best sessions on a Saturday here to be honest, not only in terms of position but also getting a pretty good run out of the car. I am a few tenths off Seb, three-and-a-half or whatever it is. In the end Seb did a great job for pole and my lap wasn't too bad at all, so it has put us in a good position for the race. I certainly was happy with a front-row start going into qualifying. It is so easy to screw the lap up here and, as Seb said, you have got such a long way to chat to yourself when you make a mistake. So to pull it altogether and as you can see all of us are improving every single time so we are learning more and more knowledge every single time we put the car on the limit so it is a challenging afternoon for all of us and very rewarding. At this level, all of us pushing each other very hard is good stuff.

Q. And for the race tomorrow how difficult is the strategy?

MW: There are a few balls in the air for sure. We aren't overly sure how constant the tyres are going to be. For sure they are going to drop off but we don't now when. It is like most races to be honest. In these sort of conditions we saw in Valencia, in Budapest, a few races - obviously Budapest was wet at the start. With the exception of I suppose Monza and some of the other races where the tyres, like in Spa, you see they are going to be pretty stable. Here we have had a decent build up on Friday. Long runs. Most teams had a good look at it, but let's see. There are two compounds that are definitely going to be used tomorrow to their extreme.

Q. And you are going to be starting on the soft compounds. That is going to be a challenge as well?

MW: Yeah, everyone I think around me is as well. That's what we've got. We can't make a pit stop overnight. Same for everyone.

Q. Jenson, given the weekend, given your comments about tyres, a bit of a surprise to be listening there?

JB: I think last night I didn't expect to be here. I didn't run the super soft tyre yesterday as obviously I was facing the wall half-way through P2 or even earlier than that. We made a lot of changes overnight and quite a lot of improvements. The pace has been good all day. I found it a little bit difficult in qualifying to really get the tyres working for a whole lap. If I had them working in the first sector they were going off by the third sector. I don't know if these guys had the same problem but we had to do a reasonably slow out lap and I think the last lap I got a bit excited and pushed maybe a little bit too hard on the first sector. The last sector, the rears had gone off quite a bit. But still got third, so I am happy to be in the top three and it is the clean side of the circuit. Good position but the worry for tomorrow is that I haven't driven on high-fuel so I don't know how that's going to feel but I'm sure we'll make the best of it.

Q. And you actually said yesterday 'not a great set-up' but also complaining of the tyres overheating. Have you solved that?

JB: From the comments that I've just made, not over one lap but hopefully on a long run. I haven't run with high fuel yet. Obviously the race is pretty tough on the tyres here, there's a lot of sliding, so you do get a lot of surface temperature on the tyres, so you've got to be careful of that. But we know it's not going to be easy and I think you can see the performance of cars really shows up here, and the gaps between teams is massive, if you head back to the cars that are starting outside the top ten. I think it's easier the more downforce you've got because the less sliding you have, and the less tyre temp you've got, so it's pretty simple really. And we're a little bit behind these guys.

Q. How much of a shock is it going to be when you run on full fuel for the first time?

JB: I've done it before. I'll get used to it pretty quickly. I'm old now, I've been here for ages. I'll be fine.

QUESTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Q. (Mathias Brunner - Speedweek) Mark, the changes on the kerbs, were those satisfactory solutions for the drivers?

MW: Yep. Yeah, absolutely. I think they did the best job they could. Obviously it was a new situation from previous years. The kerbs started to lift up, unfortunately we learnt that at a bad time before P1 yesterday so I think they've stuck them down as hard as they can, the ones they've decided to keep down there, really super-glued them to the track as much as possible. Charlie (Whiting) says it may be difficult for them to get them back up but in terms of line, the track is fine.

Q. (Heikki Kulta – Turun Sanomat) Sebastian, you had pole in Monaco, Valencia and now here; does that mean you are also a street circuit specialist?

SV: I don't know. The race is tomorrow so today was a little step. As I said, it's going to be a long race, obviously it's good to be on the front row, on the clean side, for the first time in the last three years, so I'm looking forward to that and yeah, the way down to the first corner is not that long but I still need a good start and then we go from there. It's a long race but I've always liked street circuits and I think it gives the driver a little bit more opportunity to maybe explore the limits here and there a bit more but especially around here it's different to Monaco and especially to Valencia. They are all pretty different to each other but all good fun.

Q. (Michael Schmidt – Auto, Motor und Sport) Jenson, the Red Bulls murdered everyone else in the last sector in all the sessions, and when you look at the sector it's six or seven 90-degree corners, which is not that much different to the other sectors and just one fast corner. Is it just the one fast corner where you lose out?

JB: I don't know. Our middle sector – or my middle sector - was very good, so to try and understand is very difficult. I think some of it is because our tyres are not staying in as well as these guys' – the rears – and some of it is also the high-speed corner. Red Bulls are always very strong at high speed and these guys are very quick, obviously in high speed as well. They have the advantage there but I think it is also because they have more rear grip in the last sector, their tyres are staying strong all the way through the lap. We struggle with that a little bit more. We've definitely improved the consistency today, hopefully that will show up tomorrow in the race.

Q. (Kate Walker – Girl Racer) Given that 'the show' has been a bit of a buzzword in F1 over the last few years, people are complaining about the lack of running that we've seen from some teams – obviously not any of you – in Q3. How do you feel about proposals that the FIA implement automatic grid-drop penalties for those who chose not to run in any qualifying session?

SV: I don't know. I think the last three cars didn't run, as far as I saw. Obviously for those guys the main challenge is getting to Q3 and by the time they find themselves in Q3 they haven't got much tyres left so I think that's the real problem. I think that generally if we had more tyres across the weekend, we would run more. It's the same on Friday, in a way. Time is limited as well. I don't know. I think we've had these rules for quite a while now. Obviously we might have the occasional race like here where people decide not to run because they want to save their tyres for the race, but I don't think it's the case every Saturday.

MW: Yeah, the show, which you spoke about, is generally for the teams on Sunday, so they want to save their tyres. Basically, if we were all flush with tyres, the guys would be out there and getting the experience, getting the laps in, having exposure for their own partners as well. It's not just that they just don't want to be in the garage because they haven't got any fuel; it's because they are doing it for a reason, for Sunday. I think the question is completely fair but I think the penalty is not... it's not fair to penalise people who are looking to try to have a good performance on Sunday.

JB: Yup. Totally agree. You can't penalise people for not running unless there's a regulation change. Until there's a regulation change it's always going to be like this, especially on a street circuit, and I think you will never see the quick cars doing it. The top six cars are always going to fight it out for P1 but it's the cars, as Mark said, that have just got into Q3. It probably pays to save tyres for the race, as we've seen on many occasions this year. A few guys have come from halfway down the field or even further back with all fresh sets of tyres. Mark did it in China, I've done it before and Michael's done it before. It's the way the regulations are and we're going to try everything we can to do the best we can on a Sunday afternoon – or evening.

Q. (Stephane Barbe – L'Equipe) Jenson, perhaps I am wrong, but it seems like third position this year is not such a bad position on the grid for the start. It seems like pole position is not so important as it was in the past.

JB: I think throughout the season… yes, I agree. If you get a good start and you're within touching distance of first place, I think you can have a good race, so yes, my qualifying has not been as good as I would have hoped for this season, but I've still got some very good results. Even when I do qualify well, we seem to have a few little issues but being P3 here is a great place to start. As I said before, it's on the clean side but it is also a short distance to turn one. But on average, our starts have been very good so I hope to have a good one tomorrow.

Q. (Joris Fioriti – Agence France Presse) Mark and Jenson, the fact that you're second and third gives us some hope that Sebastian is not going to take the title tomorrow. Is it of your concern to try to push him as far as possible in the championship, to Japan and Korea, or are you just trying to have the best performance possible, knowing that he's going to win the title anyway?

JB: I think that even if he doesn't start the next six races it's still going to be pretty difficult for us to beat him. When the lights go out, you don't think about the championship, when you're 100-plus points back. You go for a win, and that's exactly what I'm going to try and do tomorrow.

MW: Yup. The same, mate. The championship is… for all the great work Seb did at the start of the year, this is the situation we're in. We know the championship's been pretty boring for that reason but the racing has been awesome, the racing this year has been great and I think we're going to have some great races before the year's out. Tomorrow will hopefully be another good one and I'm planning to go forward if I can at some stage in the race, which is one more position, so got to keep him honest as long as we can.

[LUKIE]

Why is it now that everyone is causing a shit storm about Force India not going out in Q3? Schumacher didn't go out in Q3, and no one has bat an eyelash. It has happened at nearly every race meeting this year, a driver or two decide not to go out to save the tyres.

Who cares!

[Lineker]

The expression you're after is no-one bat an eyelid, but you aren't wrong with what you're saying. Its just EJ moaning for the sake of moaning.

[Fry_4000]

And Lewis has crashed into someone yet again

[Rich]

And Lewis has crashed into someone yet again

Oh look!

Its the nay saying parade yet again.

[Lineker]

And it was Massa!!

The engine sounded to me like Massa didn't get on the power quick enough out of the corner and that caused the accident with Hamilton. But Lewis did cut across too early and therefore probably did deserve his drive-thru penalty.

[Rich]

And it was Massa!!

The engine sounded to me like Massa didn't get on the power quick enough out of the corner and that caused the accident with Hamilton. But Lewis did cut across too early and therefore probably did deserve his drive-thru penalty.

It was difficult, Hamilton deserved the penalty for the amount that it hindered Massa, but I saw it as very much as a racing incident.

[Lineker]

Mercedes Smash!

[Fry_4000]

that was a scary momemt

[Lineker]

Really hairy moment. He was a whisker away from taking out Rosberg as well.

[Fry_4000]

what happened to the rule that lapped cars could unlap themselves under the safty car?

[Lineker]

I think that it might have been scrapped but I'm not 100% sure on that. If you look at the first post of this thread there's a list of rule changes from 2010.