Vettel flashes to Singapore pole position

Reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel confirmed his current form by taking yet another pole position.

The German was unmatched by his rivals and will start the Singapore Grand Prix in the best position possible. He will be joined on the front row by his Red Bull teammate Mark Webber.

Neither Lewis Hamilton nor Fernando Alonso could mount a challenge for pole. The Briton did only one run in Q3, presumably wanting to preserve his final set of supersoft tyres after he picked up a puncture in Q2. The Spaniard meanwhile didn’t have the pace to match Vettel.

It was pretty close between Vettel’s rivals as the four of them were covered by just over a tenth of a second.

McLaren will occupy the second row, Ferrari the third row, Mercedes the fourth row and Force India the fifth row of the grid.

How the session panned out :

Q1

With traffic a big issue around the streets of Singapore, the teams didn’t lost time and immediately sent their drivers out.

Red Bull and McLaren quickly trusted the top positions as they looked to secure their place in Q2. The Ferraris soon joined them at the front. With ten minutes to go, Vettel was leading from Button, Hamilton, Alonso and Webber.

Further down the order, Renault’s Petrov was in the dropzone alongside the new teams’ drivers.

Seven minutes to the chequered flag, only three drivers were still on track. It was the calm before the storm as most of the teams got ready for a final assault. Unsurprisingly, the frontrunners didn’t show up again and let the midfielders battling it out.

Petrov’s last effort moved him just out of the drop zone but his teammate Bruno Senna beat him under the chequered flag and pushed him down in 18th place. The Russian was eliminated alongside Kovalainen, Trulli, Glock, d’Ambrosio, Ricciardo and Liuzzi.

Q2

Strategies were split for this second round as McLaren tried to make it through on the yellow-ringed soft tyres while its rivals took a more cautious approach and went for a run on the super soft tyre.

Sebastian Vettel just had time to complete his flying lap and top the list before the session was red-flagged. Kamui Kobayashi had just crashed his Sauber out of the chicane. His car was quickly craned away and the session resumed.

Only nine drivers had a time on the board. Schumacher, Rosberg and Massa were first to leave the pits as they looked to complete a timed lap. In the meantime, the top five were hoping to have done enough to make it through to the next segment of qualifying.

Hamilton eventually decided not to risk it and came out for a run on the supersoft tyre. However, he picked up a puncture on his flying lap and pitted back. He was still eighth quickest. Sutil and di Resta grabbed the final two spots for Force India.

The drivers eliminated were Pérez, Barrichello, Maldonado, Buemi, Senna, Alguersuari and Kobayashi.

Q3

There was no waiting game between the pole contenders and they all left the pitlane as the track was opened. Vettel let his rivals leading the way, thus making sure he would enjoy some clear space.

The strategy paid off and the Red Bull driver was 0.4s faster than anybody else. Hamilton was second with Button third and Webber fourth. Having looked a match for Vettel during Friday’s practice, Alonso was a rather disappointing fifth.

As the usual suspects completed this first run, Rosberg came out for his own effort. It wasn’t long before he was joined on track by the rest of the drivers – bar Hamilton, Sutil and di Resta. The session was over for the three of them. Schumacher also called it a day.

Webber made the most of his last run to move up to P2 and make it an all Red Bull front row as his teammate took yet another pole position. Button and Hamilton will share the second row while the third row will be a Ferrari affair.