McLaren are a 'fighting force' - Hamilton

By Sarah Holt BBC Sport in Singapore

Lewis Hamilton believes he could win in Singapore after qualifying third behind Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.

The five drivers in the title fight took the first five places on the grid, with Jenson Button joining his McLaren team-mate on the second row.

"We're quite happy with our position," Hamilton told BBC Sport. "From there we can fight for the win.

"Our starts have been good so hopefully we can jump one guy at the start."

There is everything to play for in Singapore's spectacular night race as Alonso, Vettel, who starts second, the two McLarens and Red Bull's championship leader Mark Webber are separated by a race victory.

Button content after qualifying

It is difficult to overtake at the Marina Bay street circuit but Hamilton is optimistic he can make up ground.

"The Red Bulls are beatable," added Hamilton, who won last year's race from pole.

"Clearly they don't have the two-second lead they had at one stage this year so that's a positive for myself and Jenson.

"We knew Ferrari would be quick but our long-run pace is even better than our qualifying pace so I feel that we will have a good race."

Hamilton is five points behind Webber in the championship standings, with defending champion Button 17 points further back in fourth.

Button had struggled to find the right balance with his McLaren all weekend, explaining that he had difficulty getting the most pace out of the soft tyres.

"The first sector I pushed quite hard and damaged the rears," Button told the BBC.

Jonathan Legard's blog Fernando Alonso thought that a team-mate's help wasn't necessarily an advantage in the face of his rivals' two-pronged challenge.

"The second lap I took it easier but we didn't have any tyre temperature, [at least] we're closer to the Red Bulls."

Ferrari have never achieved better than a 10th-place finish in Singapore but Alonso is now targeting back-to-back wins after securing successive poles.

"In preparation for a good Sunday you have to have a good Saturday and we did it," said Alonso, who put himself right back in the title race by winning in Italy two weeks ago.

"We know how important it is to be on pole in a street circuit and the main target is to be on the podium. That is our job for tomorrow.

"Lewis and Mark are in front in the championship so the target is to finish the race in front of them.

"We arrived here knowing Red Bull were very strong here. Now one Red Bull is second and the other is fifth - that maybe was a surprise for us."

Webber lines up in fifth after conceding he had lost time on his qualifying lap but insists he is not facing a race of damage limitation.

The Australian believes there are more twists and turns to come and that the title will not be decided based on performance alone.

"I haven't been pulling any trees up this week in terms of pace," said Webber, who is chasing his first world title after nine years in F1. "But I've done my best.

I could not find my rhythm - Webber

"You can't win the championship on Sunday but people can make it a bit harder.

"The big, big picture is very important but you need to get the balance right and so far it's been OK for me.

"I still think that performance alone is not going to settle the championship positions.

"It was a tough break for Lewis in the last race [retiring on the first lap] and Seb in Spa [when he crashed with Button] and finishing is important.

"There are many swings and turns still to go in this one."

Vettel, who is aiming to close a 24-point gap on his team-mate, is also optimistic about his chances from second on the grid - even if he thinks he was unlucky to miss out on pole.

"Obviously, we should have been on pole by quite a bit so we didn't achieve our optimum," said Vettel, who has taken seven poles in 2010.

"It was not a smooth qualifying with traffic here and quite a few mistakes.

"It's not the case so we have to be happy with second and even if we go second or third into the first corner depending on the conditions we have a very good car and we are able to win.

"This is one of the very long races, nearly two hours, so it's a tough one and a lot of things can happen."

Sunday's night race in Singapore begins at 2000 local time (1300 BST) and coverage begins at 1210 BST on BBC One.

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