Formula One veteran David Coulthard has warned of an incident-packed weekend in Singapore as his peers gear up for what will be a critical qualifying session under the city’s night sky.

Opening practice for the historic grand prix got underway in spectacular fashion on Friday. Some 1,600 lights illuminated the new street track as the full rip-roaring force of Formula One reverberated around Singapore’s sprawling metropolis.

Formula One drivers are making slightly unusual preparations ahead of F1’s first ever night race this weekend in Singapore.

Qualifying for the race takes places at 10pm Sunday, whilst the race on Sunday will start at 8pm, much later than the afternoon starts the drivers are accustomed to. This means that drivers will basically remain on European time rather than getting used to Singapore’s local time.

Ferrari driver Felipe Massa believes that qualifying will be critical to this weekend’s racing as he does not believe the Singapore track is conducive to overtaking.

“Saturday will be very important, for sure,” he told the Straits Times. “I’ve never driven on the Singapore track but it will be even more difficult to overtake compared to Valencia because the straights are even shorter.”

David Coulthard has revealed that he is expecting his first child with fiancée Karen Minier. The 37-year old F1 driver has confirmed that the baby will be a boy and he is due just after the 2008 season has ended.

David Coulthard will be using the same engine at Hungary, meaning the engine will be run for three straight races in a row. The decision has been made to ensure he is on a different engine cycle to team-mate Mark Webber, and also so that he gets different engines in Belgium and Italy – the two tracks are notorious for being two of the toughest tracks for engines on the racing calendar.

Toyota have found the cause of Timo Glock’s crash. The German driver suffered a big impact at the German Grand Prix on lap 36 – his suspension looked to fail on the final corner of the lap, sending the car careering across the track and smashing into the pit wall.

David Coulthard has raised further concerns over the introduction of Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) next season, both in terms of safety and the amount of time teams have to implement the device.

David Coulthard has revealed that when he retires from Formula One, he will be hanging up his racing boots with no intentions of racing in another series.