It has been over 24 hours since tickets to the world's first Formula One night race here went on sale, but many fans still faced difficulties buying tickets on Friday.

Grand Prix fans hoping to get tickets at West Mall's SingPost outlet endured a stop-start journey - with the online ticketing system failing to load on various occasions.

The outlet's first successful transaction over two days came at 11.20am - an hour after 21-year-old laboratory analyst Jeevita Ravidran was attended to by staff members. She was the second customer who wanted to buy F1 tickets.

The outlet's first customer, who tried and failed to get eight Pit Grandstand tickets, left in a huff after half an hour.

Although Ms Jeevita managed to get two walkabout tickets at $168 each, it was not the Bay Grandstand tickets she wanted to buy. Repeated attempts to get seats at various segments of the Bay Grandstand met with problems.

The situation at the Robinson Road outlet was similar, with some customers having to wait up to one hour for tickets.

Organiser Singapore GP convened an emergency meeting on Friday afternoon to try and sort out the problem.

A breakdown in the ticketing system left countless fans here and abroad fuming and unable to get tickets from the moment the sales were flagged off at 9 am.

At counters, over the phone and online, ticket sales ground to a halt as computer systems went belly up.

Many fans, excited at the prospect of getting their hands on passes for the night race to be staged here in September, tried for hours, either online or queueing up at counters, only to give up hours later.

The breakdown led the Ministry of Trade and Industry - the lead government agency in the organisation of the race - to express concern over the situation in a statement on Thursday night.