Singapore Grand Prix Qualifying Report: Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel on pole, Mercedes in P5

Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, 4-time World Champion, starts the Singapore GP on pole

Sebastian Vettel of Scuderia Ferrari has qualified at the Singapore Grand Prix in pole position. After leading in P3, the 4-time world champion set an extremely quick pace through qualifying, and will start tomorrow’s Grand Prix on top.

Red Bull Racing have also had an extremely positive start to the first Grand Prix in Asia as Daniil Kvyat set the pace in FP2 as well as Q1, with teammate Daniel Ricciardo in second. Most drivers were on super softs during the session, and it appears as though Mercedes, who have been leaders all season, had no answer to the pace set by the Bulls and Ferrari.

Last year’s polesitter and winner Lewis Hamilton was 1.5 seconds behind this year’s polesitter, Sebastian Vettel, with the Mercedes driver in P5, followed by teammate Rosberg in P6. This is a major upset, as Mercedes have found themselves on the front row for the past 6 races.

Red Bull’s Ricciardo, Vettel’s former teammate, was sandwiched by the German and his Finnish teammate Kimi Raikkonen, who had a time of 1:44.667. In P4 was Ricciardo’s teammate Daniil Kvyat, who was 1/80th of a second behind the Iceman.

The Mercedes drivers in P5 and P6 were followed by Dutch driver Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso, who at 17 is the youngest driver on the grid and showed immense drive towards the end to set a quick qualifying pace. The youngster, who made his Formula One debut this year, finished with 1:49.798 behind Williams’ Valtteri Bottas, outpacing Bottas’ teammate, F1 veteran Felipe Massa.

Lotus’ Romain Grosjean rounded up the top 10 at the end of Qualifying. His teammate Pastor Maldonado did not progress beyond Q1, and with both Marussia and Sauber drivers was eliminated in that session. Both McLarens and Force Indias were eliminated in Q2, and this continued a bleak season for McLaren, who have not progressed to Q3 at all this season so far. McLaren’s Fernando Alonso was happy with the result, however, describing it as the ‘best qualifying of the season’ for him.

All drivers were on super-softs for the final qualifying session.

Standings ahead of tomorrow’s race: