Vettel takes pole position ahead of Red Bull duo in Singapore

F1 Grand Prix, GP Singapore, Marina Bay Street Circuit

Sebastian Vettel secured pole position for the Singaporean Grand Prix. The German Ferrari driver edged out two closely matched Red Bull drivers by more than three tenths. Championship leader Lewis Hamilton is set to start from 5th.

Kimi Raikkonen was the first man out on track, ahead of Kvyat. His Ferrari team mate, Sebastian Vettel joined about half a second later, followed by both McLarens and the rest of the field. This resulted in an intial pecking order of Vandoorne going fastest, ahead of Vettel, Alonso and Raikkonen.

Things rapidly changed though as both Ferraris improved on their second runs while Red Bull and Mercedes proved faster still when they joined the track.

By that time, Felipe Massa had scrubbed the wall a bit too hard and punctured his right rear tyre. He did make it back to the pits and returned to the track at the end of the session to secure 17th position, 7 tenths quicker than team mate Stroll. The duo would end up ahead only of Sauber.

In the final standings of Q1, Verstappen and Ricciardo topped the times, followed at 0.076s by Alonso. Sainz was 4th fastest, ahead of Vandoorne, Hamiton, Palmer and Kvyat. Apart from the Red Bulls and Hamilton though, the drivers that ended up in these positions did complete two runs, indicating clear improvements of the track as the session progressed.

Q3 saw a similar packing order at the front, with Verstappen leading the interweaved Red Bulls and Ferraris ahead of Hamilton in 5th. Vandoorne was 6th fastest, followed by Hulkenberg, Bottas, Alonso and Sainz.

Despite some late dashes, Palmer did get eliminated, and was joined by both Force Indias, Kvyat and Grosjean.

Q3 got started by Alonso, leading Sainz and Vandoorne out of the pits. Along with Hulkenberg, they chose to complete their first attempt on used ultra softs, while the other six drivers left in the final shootout ran new sets immediately. This obviously resulted in them going faster, with Vettel a good tenth ahead of Verstappen and Ricciardo. Raikkonen and Hamilton were up next, followed by Bottas, Alonso, Vandoorne, Hulkenberg and finally Sainz.

The second runs saw only Hulkenberg improve a position, moving ahead of both McLarens. Vettel later on improved as well and thereby secured pole, ahead of the Red Bull duo of Verstappen and Ricciardo.