Vettel takes pole at Singapore

F1 Grand Prix, GP Singapore, Marina Bay Street Circuit

Sebastian Vettel put Ferrari on pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix, edging out second placed Daniel Ricciardo by half a second. The usual front row sitting Mercedes cars didn't get further than 5th and 6th.

Alexander Rossi, running his first Grand Prix qualifying today, was the first man out on track, followed by both Williams cars.

3 minutes from the end, Hamilton went fastest, only to be demoted by Kvyat by nearly half a second. Rosberg slotted into fourth.

A small number of drivers crucially retained the soft tyre, namely Vettel, Ricciardo and Raikkonen. All others went for the super softs in the closing seconds, even though the soft runners were third, fourth and 8th fastest at the session came to an end.

Kvyat stayed fastest, 4 tenths ahead of Hamilton, then Vettel and Ricciardo. Further down the field, Button positioned himself in 15th, just enough for Q2. Slower than him, and out of qualifying were Nasr in 16th, Ericsson in 17th, Maldonado, Stevens and Rossi. Both Marussia drivers can hence take 5-place grid penalties for gearbox changes without any real effect on their grid positions.

In Q2, Bottas was quick to go out, immediately opting for the super soft tyres. Two minutes later, a large number of other cars have joined him out on track, all of them on super soft tyres.

Hamilton initially went fastest, but soon got eclipsed by Ricciardo and then Kvyat who was the first to break the 1m 45s barrier. A minute later Raikkonen slotted into second place, a tenth down on the leading Red Bull.

5 minutes from the end, Vettel went fastest, forcing all eyes to turn to the drop zone, with Grosjean, Verstappen and Bottas provisionally inside the top ten, and Perez, Hulkenberg, Sainz and both McLaren's out before the final runs.

On those final runs though, Sainz broke his rear suspension after touching the wall, bringing out a yellow flag and forcing everybody to terminate their laps. This meant that Hulkenberg got eliminated in 11th, ahead of Alonso, Perez, Sainz and Button.

In the final part of qualifying, Vettel unsurprisingly put himself ahead on the first outing, 3 tenths ahead of Ricciardo and Raikkonen, with Kvyat another tenth further down. Rosberg went 5th fastest while Lewis Hamilton made a small mistake and opted to return to the pits at the end of his flying lap, setting no time and relying on his final outing.

The second laps allowed almost everybody to improve their times further, with Vettel notably going another 4 tenths quicker to take the Singapore Pole Position. Ricciardo came close to Vettel's first time, but was no match in the end. He still qualified second, a solid effort knowing that Mercedes are just 5th and 6th.