Jenson Button finished in second place for McLaren, and Mark Webber completed the podium in third position.

The agreement outlines the teams' projected budgets – including both financial and non-financial elements, such as the amount of time spent using a wind tunnel – for upcoming seasons and limits them to using only as much as they had agreed upon.

Following an audit from a Dutch consultancy firm, it was reported that Red Bull had violated the RRA when other teams – including McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes and Sauber – had passed the inspection.

Vitantonio Liuzzi was handed a five-place grid penalty for the race for causing an accident on the first lap of the Italian Grand Prix.

[6] Scuderia Toro Rosso inadvertently broke one of its curfews when team principal Franz Tost arrived at the circuit "too early".

Competitors in the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia support races dislodged plastic kerbing on Republic Boulevard and Esplanade Drive, forcing the Grand Prix practice session to be delayed while the offending parts were removed and the circuit deemed safe.

Narain Karthikeyan drove the HRT for the first time since Valencia in this session, in preparation for his drive at his home race in India.

Sébastien Buemi's session was also ended early, when he collided with the barriers at Turn 21, going too fast through the corner and damaging his suspension.

Vettel set the quickest time in the session, two tenths quicker than Alonso, with Hamilton, Massa, Webber and Michael Schumacher completing the top six.

Circuit repairs took place overnight in an effort to improve the kerbing and prevent the race weekend from being further disrupted.

The FIA was unwilling to commit to one definitive plan, instead opting to reassess the situation once the initial work had been completed and again after the third practice session.

Petrov blamed a small error for compromising his run, briefly losing control of the back end of the car just enough to change his tyre pressures and costing him the tenth of a second he would have needed to advance to Q2.

Heikki Kovalainen qualified ahead of Jarno Trulli, followed by the Virgins of Timo Glock and Jérôme d'Ambrosio and the Hispanias of Daniel Ricciardo out-qualifying Vitantonio Liuzzi for the second race in succession.

Liuzzi received a penalty for causing a collision on the first lap of the Italian Grand Prix two weeks previously, but made no effect to his grid position of 24th.

Lewis Hamilton attempted a second flying lap during the session, but was forced to pit almost straight away when he picked up a puncture in his right-rear tyre.

Kobayashi's teammate Sergio Pérez was briefly inside the top ten and able to advance to Q3, but was knocked out at the last moment by Paul di Resta; the Mexican driver qualified eleventh ahead of the Williams pair of Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado.

Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari were fourteenth and sixteenth for Scuderia Toro Rosso, split by the lone Renault of Bruno Senna.

The third session began with four drivers queueing at the end of pit lane, an unusual sight in Formula One, as they would all be running in the dirty air generated by the cars in front.

However, with a full lap of the Marina Bay circuit taking almost two minutes to complete, the drivers would have to race to get back to the pits on their in-lap if they intended to make a second run.

Massa questioned why Hamilton felt the need for such an aggressive move as opposed to slowing on his out-lap to allow for clear running.

The safety car was deployed while the debris was cleared, with many drivers electing to make pit stops, and as a result Vettel's lead of more than 20 seconds was wiped out.

At the restart, Vettel immediately pulled out a 4-second lead over second placed Button, who was stuck behind a train of backmarkers led by Jarno Trulli.

Kobayashi was later given a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags, when Button had been stuck behind for over a lap earlier in the race.

Massa also managed to get back into the points after his clash with Hamilton, as he passed Barrichello and Pérez to move into ninth.

Di Resta scored his best finish in Formula One with sixth place, ahead of Rosberg, Sutil, Massa and Pérez, who rounded out the points.

This result also meant it was possible for Red Bull Racing to clinch their second successive Constructors' world title in Japan, by scoring 34 points more than McLaren.