Lewis Hamilton was thwarted in qualifying in Singapore after McLaren failed to get him refueled in time to make a final run at the end of the third qualifying session, leaving him unable to defend his second-place position. By not going out he was bumped down to fourth by Mark Webber and Jenson Button.
When Hamilton returned to the pits to take on fuel for his second run, fuel did not go into the car. By the time the team realized the problem, it was too late.
In addition, Hamilton had a right rear tire puncture when he went out on supersofts late in Q2 to ensure that he made it into Q3. He did not need to improve his time but the set of tires was lost when he picked up the puncture and he won't be granted replacements for the race.
The only positive is that by not going out at the end of Q3 he saved a set of new supersofts, but the only other set of options he has are the tires he qualified on and will thus have to start with, so his strategy choices are rather limited.
"Quite an eventful one but nonetheless it was still quite good, we were competitive," said Hamilton. "We came in, tried to refuel the car and they had a refueling problem. We were running out of time bit by bit and we just couldn't get enough fuel in the car. We were too late to get going and unfortunately we weren't able to get our second run.
"But these kinds of things happen. The team did the best job they could but we're not in a bad position. I think we probably could have been on the front row, I think we had a bit more time in the bag, which was good, so that's positive for tomorrow."
Hamilton thought the puncture was caused by a loose curb bolt rather than debris from Kamui Kobayashi's earlier crash.
"I'm not sure, I went over a curb and then they said they lost pressure immediately, so it might have been on a curb. There are lots of bolts hanging out of curbs, that's what they've been having problems with over the weekend, so maybe that's it."
In Q3 Hamilton also got involved in a dispute over track position with Felipe Massa: "The guys always try to back you up and I was ready to get going, so 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 was held up by Fernando, I was about a second behind Fernando at the end. I lost a little bit in my second sector. The pace is good, I feel good for tomorrow.
"From fourth I think we can only go forward--I hope so. I think it's really about looking after the tires throughout the race."
Hamilton said he was not upset about the fueling glitch: "Well, this is racing, and there's been lots of mistakes from me, lots of mistakes from... We're a team and this kind of thing happens."
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