Lewis Hamilton gave McLaren their first 4 pole positions in a row since 1999 after clocking the fastest laptime during qualifying for the 2012 Singapore Grand Prix. The McLaren driver’s time of 1:46.362 proved unbeatable throughout Q3.
Maldonado took a surprise second place for Williams, the Venezuelan was more than four tenths slower than Hamilton, while Sebastian Vettel had to settle for third place despite seeming quite fast in practice.
Jenson Button will be sharing the second row with Vettel in tomorrow’s race after going fourth fastest, with championship leader Fernando Alonso right behind in fifth place alongside sixth-placed Force India driver Paul Di Resta.
Mark Webber put his Red Bull in seventh place ahead of Lotus’ Romain Grosjean who outqualified his teammate Kimi Raikkonen, while the Mercedes duo Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher completed the remaining top ten positions.
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m46.362s 2. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Renault 1m46.804s + 0.442 3. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m46.905s + 0.543 4. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m46.939s + 0.577 5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m47.216s + 0.854 6. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m47.241s + 0.879 7. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m47.475s + 1.113 8. Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m47.788s + 1.426 9. Michael Schumacher Mercedes no time 10. Nico Rosberg Mercedes no time Q2 cut-off time: 1m47.943s 11. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m47.975s + 1.310 12. Kimi Raikkonen Lotus-Renault 1m48.261s + 1.596 13. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m48.344s + 1.679 14. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m48.505s + 1.840 15. Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m48.774s + 2.109 16. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m48.849s + 2.184 17. Bruno Senna Williams-Renault no time Q1 cut-off time: 1m49.809s 18. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m49.933s + 2.245 19. Vitaly Petrov Caterham-Renault 1m50.846s + 3.158 20. Heikki Kovalainen Caterham-Renault 1m51.137s + 3.449 21. Timo Glock Marussia-Cosworth 1m51.370s + 3.682 22. Charles Pic Marussia-Cosworth 1m51.762s + 4.074 23. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m52.372s + 4.684 24. Pedro de la Rosa HRT-Cosworth 1m53.355s + 5.667