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Lewis Hamilton has been left with a difficult task tomorrow after a puncture and a mistake in the McLaren garage spoiled his qualifying session.

Hamilton had a right rear puncture when he went out on supersofts late in Q2 in order to ensure that he made Q3. In fact he did not need to improve his time and the set was lost when he picked up the puncture.

In Q3 he was second after the first runs, but when he returned to the pits to take on fuel for his second run, the fuel did not go into the car. By the time the team realised, it was too late. By not going out, he was bumped down to fourth.

The only positive is that by not going out he saved a set of new supersofts, but the only other set of options he has are the tyres he qualified on and will thus have to start with. His strategy choices are rather limited – two stops with perhaps a bit of help from the safety car is the logical route.

“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 refuelling problem. We were running out of time, but 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 kerb bolt rather than debris from Kamui Kobayashi’s earlier crash.

“I’m not sure, I went over a kerb and then they said they lost pressure immediately, so it might have been on a kerb. There are lots of bolts hanging out of kerbs, 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 forwards – I hope so. I think it’s really about looking after the tyres throughout the race.”

Hamilton said he was not upset about the fuelling 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.”

Fernando Alonso was in an upbeat mood after finishing FP2 in Singapore in second place, just 0.2s shy of pacesetter Sebastian Vettel.

Ferrari had expected to be competitive at a track where the Spaniard has also done well in the past.

“I think we were more or less happy with the car all through the two sessions,” said Alonso. “But here it’s very difficult to exploit the potential of the car. There are only one or two laps when the tyres give you the maximum performance, plus there is always the traffic. On this occasion there were the red flags and the yellow flags.

“So it was a mix of many things happening during the laps, and I think the tyres can be a little bit mixed. I’m sure there are some quick guys that today they didn’t perform, because of all these factors, and there are some other guys that maybe they are up in the front and tomorrow they will struggle a little bit more. As I said, happy with the car, and the long run pace was OK.”

Tyres are a major talking point already and given that Ferraris relatively easy on its rubber, Alonso thinks the team could have an advantage.

“Normally here we should face high degradation of the tyres, which for us historically is a good thing, because our car seemed to take care about the tyres a little bit better than some other cars in the past races. So if there is high degradation in this track, maybe we can have an opportunity.”

Button's McLaren spent most of FP2 parked at Turn 14

Jenson Button has a lot of catching up to do after losing most of the second practice session in Singapore.

Button locked up and ran wide at Turn 14 early in the session. Although he didn’t hit anything, a gearbox glitch meant that he was not able to reverse out of trouble and get going again, so he had to abandon the car. He ran only 10 laps in that session, compared with the 33 of Sebastian Vettel, and admits he now has a lot of work to do in order to improve the car.

“I locked up into – I don’t know what corner it is, I don’t want to know any more – and just kept out of the barriers,” said Button. “I selected reverse and started to go back slowly and then I didn’t have any drive in reverse. I tried to turn the car around, but there wasn’t enough room.

“Then I tried to go backwards again, and there was no reverse. I’m guessing that something’s not working correctly. I didn’t do much running today, I only ran the prime tyre, and didn’t have a great set-up, so I was really disappointed not to do any more running, because I couldn’t improve it. We have some ideas for tomorrow for what we can do to the car. It’s only an hour, but we’ll make some good progress.”

Button said he learned a lot by studying what everyone else was doing, and he made some interesting observations about tyres.

“I was with my engineers watching everyone running round, and obviously we have the data from Lewis’s car. Sebastian and Red Bull are very fast, and Ferrari are fast over a long run as well.

“I think looking at the TV and looking at the times I think everyone is going to struggle with tyres in the race. It seems that people are overheating tyres even in three laps. You could say the tyres are maybe a little bit too soft for round here, but then again you don’t have the grip either on lap one. It’s going to be a tough race for everyone around here. We’re all in the same boat, we just have to make the best of what we have.”

Jean Alesi is convinced that his return to top flight racing with Lotus at the 2012 Indy 500 is the right decision.

The Frenchman, whose last GP was in Japan in 2001, joked that he wanted to do well because otherwise his family would “give me a lot of shit.”

Alesi says that testing in the T125 customer ‘track day’ car made him realise that he still wanted to drive single seaters. He has already experienced the Indy track in the Dallara simulator.

“It can be a surprise for a lot of my friends, because for a long time I’m not racing at this level,” said Alesi today. “Of course when I stopped F1 I did the DTM, and then I played around let’s say with Speedcar and last year the GT. But I had a lot of will inside of me to be back in a good and competitive car. But it was difficult to find something and to find the friends to talk about that.

“You cannot go around and say, ‘I would dream to be back in a single-seater,’ and then you don’t know what to do. After F1 there is not really something left for someone like me, because now I have age, I cannot go back to an F3 or other kind of single-seater.

“When I went back into what we call the T125, which is an F1 for customers, it made me really crazy about being back in a top racing car. Of course with Lotus behind me they said, ‘OK, if you want to do something good, we have Indianapolis.’

“Why not? And I said let me check how it is, and I checked carefully. It’s not something I do because I want absolutely to race, but I want really to be able to be competitive, I don’t want to look ridiculous because I have not only my fans, I have family, I have kids, and they will give me a lot of shit if I am  not doing well.

“I started already to go on the simulator, I started to do more mileage with the T125, and here we are.”

Alesi said he wasn’t put off by problems other ex-F1 drivers faced when trying Indycars.

“In my case it never crossed my thoughts. I went immediately to DTM and I had a fantastic time with Mercedes. To be honest when you have not a group behind you to go and to find the team and to look for a new world like that is difficult. The reason why it’s easier for me to think about Indianapolis is the company I belong to now is Lotus. Next year we are building an engine, so I’m really much more into the technical side than going there and saying in which team is there room?

“It’s going to be much more interesting because we’re going to have this V6 turbo soon. We’re going to test in December, and I will do it.”

Alesi insists that he will only do Indy and says he is working on his fitness – not because the cars are hard to drive, but to aid recovery from potential injury…

Lewis and Anthony Hamilton before the start in Italy

Lewis Hamilton admits that he opted not to criticise Michael Schumacher after the Italian GP because he thought it would be better not to court controversy by voicing a negative opinion.

In Monza Lewis carefully avoided questions about Schumacher’s tactics, although his body language made it pretty clear that he was not happy.

Given his occasionally difficult relationship with the press, it’s perhaps not surprising that he took that course.

“I was disappointed that I couldn’t do better in the race,” he said when asked by this blog if he had stayed quiet tried to avoid trouble. “I just kept my mouth shut. It’s done me a lot of good, I’ve been relaxed for the last couple of weeks, I haven’t had too many problems!”

Pressed on whether that was now a deliberate policy, Lewis added: “You [the media] are constantly asking me what lessons I’ve learned, and that was one lesson I was able to apply that day.

“I’m very, very passionate, and I think I’m very open and very blunt with the things that I say, and I’m not scared to say what I feel. But it can be used against me. So I just won’t… And at that time I was able to control myself, and that’s what life is about, being in control.”

Asked how difficult it was to do that, Lewis said: “If someone punches you in the face, how hard is it not to punch back? When you’re at school, unless you’re scared, it’s hard for you to hold back and stay in control.”

Meanwhile Lewis said he wasn’t frustrated that the championship battle is all but over.

“It’s not frustrating at all. It’s sad that the season may be over this weekend for us as a team. We would love to be leading both championships, that’s what we’ve all worked for throughout the year, but that’s not the way it is, and we need to do a better job next year.”

Hamilton also paid a tribute to Sebastian Vettel: “I think he’s driven exceptionally this year. He’s really driven very, very well. He’s finished first or second in all the races apart from one. Massively consistent, massively well controlled, his persona, his attitude, has been very professional. He’s made very few mistakes.”

Fernando Alonso has reiterated that he has given up on the 2011 title, but wants to win more races before the end of the season.

The Spaniard, who won in controversial circumstances in 2008, says that Singapore could be one of his best chances.

“We will try to attack, try to be aggressive with the strategies and the starts, try to win races,” said Alonso. “We know that we cannot fight for the general classification, we know that we cannot fight for the Tour de France, but we want to win individual stages. So we want to win individual races.

“Here in Singapore it’s true it’s one of our best opportunities in the remaining races, because the characteristics of the circuit are similar to Monte Carlo, we were quite competitive there, and we have soft and supersoft tyres, and that is normally the combination that we like most.

“It should be a good weekend us, but a victory is never easy, or is never close enough when we are fighting with Red Bull and McLaren. It’s going to be tough, but hopefully closer than some other races.”

Comparing Singapore with Monaco, Alonso added: “Driving technique, it’s a combination between Monte Carlo and a normal circuit, because Monte Carlo is very extreme, very low speed corners, and the way you drive there is a little bit more crazy in a way.

“Here you need to be for sure very precise and close to the walls, and at the same time there is a little bit of room to take care of the tyres, and a little bit of strategy etc, because it’s a wide circuit, and quite a good street circuit.”

Adrian Sutil says there is no news on his plans for 2012, and the German denies suggestions that he has visited Williams with a view to landing a seat at the Grove team.

“No developments, just rumours,” said Sutil. “I didn’t go there and I have no contact with them.

“I have to see. At the moment it’s difficult to say where is possible. The team is very good here, it’s doing a good performance. I’ve known the team for a long time, so whatever I do, I have to think twice, if it’s a good step. The top teams are closed anyway, the top four. Maybe there’s no reason to change really. I’m just concentrated on my racing and we’ll see where it goes. No plans.”

Force India has indicated that it won’t make a decision until December: “It’s pretty late, not easy, but maybe I have no other chance really! We have to wait.

“I have to be fast, and score some points, and then hopefully it’s enough for them to say yeah, he deserves another year with us or not. I think if I do my races as I can, as good as possible, then I will get a seat.”

Meanwhile Force India is focussed on beating Sauber to sixth place in the championship.

“I think it’s tight, we have to push on. I don’t know whether Sauber is putting some upgrades on the car and trying to improve their performance, but I think we have a better car, especially in qualifying. They are quite strong in the races still, so it all equals out a little bit. We have no reason to relax.”

Colin Kolles has confirmed that Narain Karthikeyan will return to the HRT cockpit for his home race in Delhi.

While that has been the plan all along – the Red Bull/Daniel Ricciardo deal did not include the Indian GP – commercial considerations also had to be addressed.

That issue now appears to have been resolved, and Karthikeyan will drive in FP1 in Singapore in order to get some more mileage.

“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,” said Kolles in a team statement. “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.”

“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 Singapore circuit will definitely be a challenge as it is new to me so I’ll have to get to grips with it fairly quickly.

“Overall, it is a great place to return to race proceedings, and will go a long way to get me back in the rhythm for the Indian GP.”

Sergio Perez appears to have impressed Ferrari on his first test in a Maranello car at Fiorano today, and has probably done his chances of landing a race seat in 2013 – or beyond – no harm at all.

Perez and Ferrari third driver Jules Bianchi both drove the 2009 F60 model today – which is allowed within the confines of the testing agreement – as part of their ongoing relationship with the Ferrari Driver Academy.

Perez completed 46 laps with a best time of 60.650s, while Bianchi did 70 laps, with a best of 60.213s, although not much can be learned from the times as they were running different prgrammes.

“This was a really special day for me,” said 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.”

Regarding talk of a future at Maranello, 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 and 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, the meetings with the engineers are all things that will help me over the rest of the season and in general in the future.”

“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.”

“Today, we followed two different programmes with Perez and Bianchi,” said Academy head and formerF1 engineer Luca Baldisserri. “Sergio impressed, despite this being his first time at the wheel of a Ferrari. He proved to be aggressive and quick right from the start and was able to adapt to the car in a very short space of time.

“He is very mature for his age, displaying an understanding that goes beyond the time he has spent driving single-seaters. With Bianchi, who has been with us since last year, we used a car fitted with special sensors to study the correlation between the car on track and the simulator: many of his laps were what I’d call ‘interlocutory’ because the main aim of them was to acquire data.”

Suggestions on Twitter yesterday that Sam Michael would be confirmed at McLaren today have been proved accurate as the Williams man is to become Sporting Director of the Woking team.

The team said today: “As Vodafone McLaren Mercedes’ Sporting Director, Sam will join the senior management team in addition to taking specific responsibility for the development and management of the team’s trackside operations. His vast experience and profound understanding of race operations will enhance the team’s on-track capability, adding significantly to its already impressive technical management strength-in-depth.”

“I’m extremely excited to be joining Vodafone McLaren Mercedes,” said Michael. “Being a racer my whole life, I know that McLaren is one of the all-time greats of Formula 1. I already know and respect many of the team’s senior technical management figures, and becoming a member of that excellent working unit was one of the prime attractions of this new position.

“Equally, for some time I’ve closely observed and greatly admired both Lewis and Jenson as grade-one drivers, and therefore regard it as an enormous privilege to be able to work with both of them.

“I’ve spent 11 seasons with WilliamsF1, have many fond memories, and truly wish them all the best. In the near future, however, I will become 100 per cent focused on Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, and will be aiming to ensure that the team’s famous rocket-red victory T-shirts will be seen many times over the coming years.”

Martin Whitmarsh added: “I’m very pleased to welcome Sam as an important senior addition to our race team. He’ll bring a very valuable blend of experience and expertise to our pitwall, and will also enrich the technical management we provide for our drivers.

“I’m certain he’ll work extremely well with our senior technical management team, which I firmly believe will now become the strongest in all of Formula 1.”