To the delight of the strategists, the rain had subsided by the time qualifying had started under the lights at the Singapore.
This weekend marks the first time F1 has gone to the circuit since 2019 after the postponements caused by the pandemic and the ever-changing weather has already got us excited for the race on Sunday.
Before then, a crucial qualifying, with the tight and twisty Marina Bay circuit proving difficult to overtake in the past.
The cars started on the intermediate tyre – a necessary call after the disruption in P3 and the support series – but the switch to dry tyres looked to be close.
As a result the times were constantly getting faster as the drivers waited for the dry line to appear.
The closing stages approached and there was still no clear idea who would be knocked out in Q1.
The yellow flags were brought out in the final seconds as Fernando Alonso had an incident at T8.
The major surprise was Esteban Icon who qualified a disappointing 18th. The Alpine team have been culpable of seeing a few opportunities slip away and this will feel like another for the Frenchman at least.
Alongside him Daniel Ricciardo had a disappointing session as the 17th fastest car. Although considering the season the Australian has had, I don’t see a lot of fight in him anymore as his mind may be turning to what he’ll be doing next season.
Valtteri Bottas continued his poor run in 16th in what has been a season of two halves for the Flying Finn. After a lightning start to the season – and looking invigorated in his surroundings – he is now struggling in the Alfa with Zhou Guanyu giving him a run for his money.
The two Williams drivers propped up the bottom of the field with Max Verstappen quickest in the first session.
Second qualifying and still the drivers remained on the intermediate tyre. As Red Bull chief, Christian Horner pointed out, the night time temperatures meant the standing water was sticking around long after the rain had stopped falling.
Ferrari and Red Bull seemed to have the pace ate session progressed with Mercedes unable to match them despite the early promise shown on Friday.
The standing water was providing problems with some parts much dryer than others.
The intermediate tyres were no help for the Haas of Schumacher as he took the car for the spin on a weekend he really needs to impress with the rumours hotting up that the team are looking for a replacement.
The Aston Martins were the first to take a gamble with the slick tyres as the chance of getting to Q3 presented itself.
The frontrunners unsurprisingly kept it conservative with sticking with the inters as none of them wanted to be caught out.
It was a gamble that didn’t pay off with the Astons skating around the circuit and being dumped out in 12th and 14th respectively. A disappointing result for Seb – who has the joint top pole positions at the circuit – in his final Singapore GP.
He was joined by Zhou and Schumacher who couldn’t follow his teammate by getting into Q3 – Magnussen putting in a brilliant performance with a good chance of points tomorrow.
The biggest shock was Mr Saturday getting dumped out in 11th. Toto Wolff looked on in horror as Russell put in an uncharacteristically poor performance. He’ll have it all to do tomorrow on a weekend when some thought the Mercs may challenge for the win.
The final shootout and tensions were high. It was interesting to see how the teams dealt with the changeable conditions.
The Ferrari’s got proceeding’s underway coming out on the dry tyres with the other drivers following suit, apart from Tsunoda and Magnussen, who stuck with the inters.
The Alpha Tauri was looking strong as he shot to the top the timing sheets showing the inters still had a part to play.
Hamilton threw that time out the window however with a blinding time in tricky conditions reminiscent of a few of his scintillating drives at this circuit.
The purple laps were coming thick and fast until the yellow flags were brought out with Pierre Gasly running wide. He managed to get back on the circuit with no issues.
As the track dried and the chequered flag fell it was Charles Leclerc who pulled it out of the bag for Ferrari.
He was followed by Perez and Hamilton making it three teams in the top three in what is sure to be an exciting race.
The championship leader, Max Verstappen, will be disappointed with 5th although we’ve seen him work wonders down the field this season.
There was an expletive-laden radio message as he came back into the pits. He wanted to do another lap, it was possibly fuel issues that prevented that.
We’re set up for an amazing race tomorrow.