Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Vettel surprised by margin to Mercedes

Sebastian Vettel is surprised how much quicker he was than the two Mercedes drivers after taking pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix.

With Mercedes under pressure throughout qualifying, Vettel produced an excellent lap to take pole by over half a second from Daniel Ricciardo. The gap to Lewis Hamilton in fifth place was 1.5s and while Vettel says his lap was "near-perfect" he is still surprised by how big his final advantage was.

"Unbelievable," Vettel said. "I know it’s only Saturday and the main job is coming tomorrow but I had to enjoy the moment when I heard that I made it. It was looking pretty good from the offset of qualifying and actually from this morning, to be fair, and then the car was fantastic – it just got better throughout qualifying.

"I think we did the maximum today, I was surprised by the margin but I think it just came together. I really had a near-perfect lap at the end, so I was very, very happy with the laps I had today, especially the last one. It’s such a long, tricky lap and so easy to go in to deep or push it a little too much but it just seemed to come at the end. I was very happy that I made it to the finish line because it felt like a good lap.

"Very happy, puts us in a good position tomorrow, but it’s only Saturday and we have a job tomorrow. I’m sure Mercedes will be quick tomorrow, everything else will be a bit of a surprise and it’s already a bit of a surprise."

Asked why Mercedes is so uncompetitive in Singapore, Vettel replied: "I don’t know, it’s a surprise.

"I thought they were sandbagging yesterday and also this morning because there is no doubt they have the strongest package. They have a very good car, a very good power unit, which we know, and usually that puts them up there very high and makes them difficult to beat.

"I don’t know, they must have some issues and not feeling comfortable at all with their degradation, I think. I wouldn’t rule them out for tomorrow. It’s not the easiest circuit to overtake, but if you have the pace you can close in."

REPORT: Vettel storms to Singapore pole as Mercedes dominance ends

AS IT HAPPENED: Singapore Grand Prix qualifying

Click here for some of the most memorable crashes at Singapore

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.