Hamilton takes shock Singapore GP pole, Vettel third
Lewis Hamilton took a shock pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix beating Max Verstappen by over three-tenths while championship protagonist Sebastian Vettel could only manage third.
Hamilton set his benchmark time on his first Q3 run, an effort that saw the previously favoured Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen over half-a-second behind.
Raikkonen was the first of the front runners to set a time in Q3 with a 1m37.403s, shortly before Hamilton set his blistering 1m.36.015s tour to go 1.3 seconds faster.
Valtteri Bottas and Vettel failed to even get within half-a-second of Hamilton’s incredible effort, while Max Verstappen managed to get his Red Bull into second – albeit over three-tenths behind the championship leader.
Raikkonen was again the first of the leaders out on track for the Q3 final runs, and despite improving could only manage a time good enough for fifth.
No other improvements were forthcoming, however, and Hamilton held on to take his 79th Formula 1 pole position ahead of Verstappen and Vettel, while Bottas was fourth in the second Mercedes.
Daniel Ricciardo could get nowhere near his team-mate’s lap and had to settle for sixth, while Sergio Perez was the fastest of the midfield in seventh.
Behind came the Haas of Romain Grosjean, while the second Racing Point Force India machine of Esteban Ocon and the Renault of Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top ten.
Both Ferraris attempted to emulate Mercedes Q1 strategy of using the ultrasoft tyre to progress to Q3, although Raikkonen was forced to ditch his lap after running wide at turn 5.
The Finn then re-emerged later on the hypersoft rubber in one last attempt to reach Q3, which he duly did by setting the quickest lap of the session.
Vettel, despite catching several cars on their warm-up laps in the final sector, managed to also set a time good enough to reach Q3 in the closing minutes of the session.
Less lucky though was Fernando Alonso, who missed out on a Q3 slot by just over a tenth in what was a much stronger showing for McLaren compared to recent races, while the second Renault of Carlos Sainz also failed to make the cut just behind Alonso in 12th.
Both Saubers of Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson also failed to escape from Q2 and will start 13th and 14th tomorrow as a result, while Pierre Gasly in 15th was the last man failing to reach the top ten shootout.
Both Mercedes cars managed to just escape Q1 using the slower ultrasoft tyre, Hamilton falling as far as 14th by the end of Q1.
Kevin Magnussen was a surprise Q1 casualty, the Haas man failing to set a final flying lap at the end of the first section of qualifying and will start 16th as a result.
Joining him on the sidelines was Brendon Hartley for Toro Rosso in 17th just ahead of the struggling Stoffel Vandoorne, as well as both Williams cars that will lock out the back row of the grid.