Williams aims for podium finish in Singapore

With Williams F1 driver Pastor Maldonado starting from the front row for the 2012 Singapore the team is hoping that he can deliver a podium finish. Pastor will start behind Hamilton but in front of Vettel, both of whom are fighting for the drivers title and may be somewhat more cautious in their approach to the race.

As for whether Pastor should take the opportunity to add another race victory to his win in Spain Williams Chief Operations Manager Mark Gillan said: "Lewis has been very strong all weekend, and has been the class act this weekend in terms of pace.

"But Pastor has certainly pushed him hard and anything can happen; we are out to get a podium.

"Each team has their own battle and we want to be up there as much as any team. But from our side, we have as much to win and lose as any team up the front of the grid and we want a podium. We feel we can do it."

As for Pastor's strong qualifying performance after several days of practice that saw both Williams drivers struggle Gillan added: "We were very strong on the prime tyre on Friday, and not so much on the supersoft - so that was something that we did a lot of work on between Friday and Saturday."

"Pastor is also a very special talent. As a driver he is exceptionally quick.

"Sometimes the car, like at the last race, was not as good as it has been, but here we were good on Friday on the prime tyre, and not so good on the option.

"We worked hard on the set-up to adapt and it seems to have paid dividends. But Pastor I think has strung out pretty much all the performance of the car. I don't think there would be many who could have driven it quicker."