Fernando Alonso outshone Lewis Hamilton in the dark to go quickest in opening practice for the historic inaugural Singapore Grand Prix.
The Spaniard pipped the McLaren driver to the top spot with a late lap of 1:45.654 in closing stages of the second practice session.
“The first day of work has gone well,” reflected the double world champion. “The circuit is interesting, very bumpy in places, especially into turn number 7, and we have to keep an eye on that because it can become a problem.”
“In terms of the lighting, when I walked the track I was impressed, but behind the wheel at 300 km/h some parts of the track are a bit dark. But despite that, this is an amazing opportunity for the spectators to attend a night race and I am satisfied with my day.”
Hamilton set the pace in the first practice session and his time of 1:45.518 stood as the quickest of the day, though he had to battle with his MP4-23 bottoming out on the straights.
“Through certain corners there was lots of bottoming, and when you hit a bump it would throw the car around quite a bit,” he explained, “but it s an amazing venue”.
“On my first proper run, I managed to find a half-decent line – but the car was still bottoming in places,” he added. “I was able to get more comfortable with the car; on first impressions, there seems to be quite a lot of grip on the track, so you can brake quite late.”
“It s a very physical circuit – more than I expected, actually. You need to put a lot of work into the car to get a good lap – I d say it requires double the energy of Monaco over a single lap. One lap around here is like two laps of Monaco!”
Felipe Massa was third quickest at the end of the second session with McLaren’s Heikki Kovalainen in fourth ahead of Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica and Kimi Raikkonen. Jenson Button wound up an impressive eighth quickest for Honda.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Alonso Renault (B) 1:45.654 30 2. Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:45.752 + 0.098 28 3. Massa Ferrari (B) 1:45.793 + 0.139 31 4. Kovalainen McLaren-Mercedes (B) 1:45.797 + 0.143 31 5. Rosberg Williams-Toyota (B) 1:46.164 + 0.510 34 6. Kubica BMW Sauber (B) 1:46.384 + 0.730 36 7. Raikkonen Ferrari (B) 1:46.580 + 0.926 25 8. Button Honda (B) 1:46.901 + 1.247 32 9. Nakajima Williams-Toyota (B) 1:47.013 + 1.359 32 10. Glock Toyota (B) 1:47.046 + 1.392 22 11. Webber Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:47.137 + 1.483 15 12. Piquet Renault (B) 1:47.145 + 1.491 35 13. Vettel Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:47.300 + 1.646 33 14. Bourdais Toro Rosso-Ferrari (B) 1:47.487 + 1.833 24 15. Coulthard Red Bull-Renault (B) 1:47.640 + 1.986 31 16. Heidfeld BMW Sauber (B) 1:47.760 + 2.106 36 17. Fisichella Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:47.965 + 2.311 12 18. Barrichello Honda (B) 1:48.009 + 2.355 25 19. Trulli Toyota (B) 1:48.059 + 2.405 28 20. Sutil Force India-Ferrari (B) 1:48.311 + 2.657 36
