Vettel clinches crucial pole with blazing lap in Singapore

Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel claimed his 49th career pole position on Saturday in qualifying for the 2017 Singapore Grand Prix.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were next fastest, with Kimi Raikkonen fourth. Mercedes team mates Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas had to settle for third row grid positions.

Singapore Grand Prix - Qualifying results

Q1: Red Bull in charge as Massa finds the wall

Red Bull started qualifying in the same swaggering form that had seen the team sweep all three practice sessions in Singapore. Verstappen set the pace with a lap of 1:42.010s, half a tenth faster than his team mate Ricciardo.

Everyone had been straight on to ultrasoft tyres. A flurry of fast laps at the end of Q1 saw McLaren's Fernando Alonso spring into third ahead of Toro Rosso's Carlos Sainz, while Alonso's team mate Stoffel Vandoorne was a strong fifth two tenths ahead of Hamilton. Both Ferraris ended up pushed out of the top ten by the late improvements, but in no danger of being eliminated.

Haas' Romain Grosjean just managed to make it through to Q2 in 15th place, at the expense of his team mate Kevin Magnussen who was 0.129s slower. Felipe Massa failed to progress after hitting the wall in turn 21, suffering a puncture and broken wheel on his Williams. His team mate Lance Stroll also gave the barrier a hard thump in the final corner on his last lap, and similarly failed to make the cut.

The two Saubers of Pascal Wehrlein and Marcus Ericsson were slowest in the first round. Ericsson will start from the back after taking a five place grid penalty for a gearbox change after hitting the wall in FP3.

Q2: McLaren get both cars through, Red Bull on record pace

Vettel set a new track record with his first run in Q2, only to be immediately surpassed by Verstappen chalking up a lap of 1:40.379s. Their respective team mates Ricciardo and Raikkonen were next up ahead of Hamilton and Vandoorne.

Even so, no one was confident enough to sit in pit lane and forego a second run. Verstappen slightly improved his time on his next run to keep the advantage over Ricciardo, who moved into second. Raikkonen also found some extra speed to go third ahead of Vettel.

A last push saw Alonso force his way into ninth place ahead of Sainz. Missing out on the final round were Renault's Jolyon Palmer, both Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon and Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat. Slowest in Q2 was Grosjean.

Q3: Vettel blows away his rivals, Hamilton manages fifth

Alonso set the first time in Q3 with a lap of 1:41.944s, but Vettel quickly blew that away with a stunning lap of 1:39.669s. Verstappen attempted to fight back but remained 0.145s off the Ferrari. Ricciardo was just a few hundredths off his team mate's pace with Raikkonen fourth ahead of the Mercedes pairing of Hamilton and Bottas.

Vettel succeeded in shaving off almost two tenths further on his subsequent run. However, he also found the outside wall along the way. Other drivers also improved their times, but not by enough to shake up the top six.

Having lost his drivers championship lead after the last race, clinching this pole position was vital for Vettel - especially with Hamilton set to start four places in arrears. Ultimately Vettel's advantage over the two Mercedes on the third row was more than six tenths of a second.

Renault's Nico Hulkenberg took seventh place, followed by the two McLarens of Alonso and Vandoorne. Carlos Sainz will round out the top ten on the grid.

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