Championship contender Lewis Hamilton achieved his 36th career pole position at Marina Bay, Singapore by beating his Mercedes team-mate by seven thousandths of a second.
Hamilton was only sixth quickest on his first run in the Q3 top ten shootout but despite a lock-up at Turn 1 on his final lap, a particularly strong run through the middle part of the lap allowed him to beat Rosberg by a tiny margin.
Red Bull Racing locked out the second row, with Daniel Ricciardo again out-qualifying his world champion colleague of Sebastian Vettel. The difference was only half-a-tenth.
Fernando Alonso was fifth fastest, only a tenth behind the leading Red Bull, although Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was not able to do better than seventh after suffering a power problem on his second run.
In between the Scuderia is Felipe Massa. The Williams driver putting in an impressive lap to go provisional pole on the first-run times, but was only able to make a tiny improvement on his second lap.
Williams team-mate Valtteri Bottas was eighth and was unable to improve on his second run.
Kevin Magnussen was ninth for McLaren, only 0.569 seconds off Hamilton’s pole position time, while Daniil Kvyat was slowest in Q3 after having only one set on super-soft rubber available for the final qualifying session.
Jenson Button and Jean-Eric Vergne were in the top ten in Q2 on their first runs, but with both Williams drivers setting slow times after choosing to run used super-softs for their first run, were always in danger of missing the cut.
They were bumped down to P11 and P12 when Massa and Bottas improved on a fresh set of Pirellis.
Button was able to improve on his second run, but a lock-up at the hairpin cost him time and he missed the cut by 23 thousandths of a second, ending up P11.
Vergne was unable to improve on his second run, complaining about front-end grip and suffering a costly lock-up, meaning he qualified P12.
The Force India pairing of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez also both failed to improve on their second runs, ending up P13 and P15 respectively.
They were split by Esteban Gutierrez, showing a strong turn of pace in the upgraded Sauber.
Romain Grosjean was slowest of those who made it to Q2 and was very vocal on the team radio about an engine problem that cost him time.
Adrian Sutil came close to escaping Q1, but failed to relegate Perez into the dropzone with his final lap in Q1 and ended up P17.
Pastor Maldonado blamed a power unit problem on his final run for failing to reach Q2.
He was unable to fully recharge the battery, meaning he was lacking full power on his final lap, ending up P18, behind Jules Bianchi.
The Marussia driver put in a superb lap on his final effort to jump ahead of his team-mate Max Chilton, who ended up P21, with Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi doing a good job to separate the pair.
Marcus Ericsson joined the session late after the Caterham team had to work flat out to solve an electrical problem that had struck in free practice, ending up last.
So an extremely close qualifying session with the top seven covered by less than half-a-second. It was another Mercedes front-row but Red Bull and Ferrari are not far behind.
Qualifying positions, Singapore Grand Prix:
1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m45.681s
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m45.688s
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m45.854s
4 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m45.902s
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m45.907s
6 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m46.000s
7 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m46.170s
8 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m46.187s
9 Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 1m46.250s
10 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 1m47.362s
11 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m46.943s
12 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 1m46.989s
13 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m47.308s
14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 1m47.333s
15 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m47.575s
16 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 1m47.812s
17 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 1m48.324s
18 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 1m49.063s
19 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 1m49.440s
20 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 1m50.405s
21 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 1m50.473s
22 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 1m52.287s
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was left feeling shocked by his rivals being so close after an exciting Q3 session at Marina Bay. Autosport.com has the news story.
Lewis Hamilton admitted he was very surprised to see Mercedes’ Formula 1 rivals so close in the fight for Singapore Grand Prix pole position.
The Briton took his third pole at the Marina Bay circuit, but only after beating team-mate Nico Rosberg by 0.007 seconds, the smallest pole gap since the 2010 German Grand Prix.
The top six cars were separated by just three tenths of a second in what was one of the tightest qualifying session of the season.
Hamilton believes Mercedes’ rivals have made a significant leap forward.
“The others have taken a step, it is a real, real surprise,” said Hamilton.
“I’m just as surprised to see Ferrari competing on a lap, which is great to see, also Williams and Red Bull.
“For racing it is great. That is the most exciting qualifying session I have had for a long time. You have to be spot on and I was almost there.”
The Mercedes driver secured his sixth pole of the season despite locking up during his final flying lap.
Hamilton admitted he thought pole was out of reach after that mistake.
“I just didn’t really have a clean lap through the whole of qualifying,” he said. “The last one was the cleanest.
“I locked up at the apex. I was down two tenths by the time I got to Turn 5, I thought it would be impossible to regain it, but the previous lap there were a couple of corners where I lost out, so I sorted them out.”
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo ended up being Mercedes’ main challenger, 0.173s behind Hamilton in third.
“It is definitely encouraging,” said the Australian.
“Coming into the weekend I thought if we could get within two or three tenths it should give us some optimism to stay close to them [in the race].
“We are closer than we thought.”
As for championship leader Nico Rosberg. He rues the changing of brakes in qualifying affected his form. Autosport.com has the details.
Nico Rosberg admitted a change of brake specification for Singapore Grand Prix qualifying put him off his stride.
The current Formula 1 world championship leader was beaten to pole by Mercedes team-mate and 2014 F1 title rival Lewis Hamilton by just 0.007 seconds.
Rosberg had been quickest in Q2, but required two runs to get there, whereas the other frontrunners stayed in the pits after their first outings.
He jumped to the top in the closing seconds of Q3, only for Hamilton to narrowly deny him moments later.
“We changed brakes going into qualifying and I got into a rhythm with the other brakes, so that was a challenge,” said Rosberg.
“We expected it to be, but it took me some time to get into qualifying, and the balance difference as the track had cooled down.
“I had to completely adapt to the setting and it took me some time to get into the car.”
When Rosberg was informed by engineer Tony Ross that Hamilton had beaten him by such a tight margin, he responded by loudly exclaiming “damn it!” – an outburst he found amusing when questioned about it following the session.
“Seven thousandths, when I think back to the lap, is nothing,” said Rosberg.
“A bit more here or there and I could have done it.
“Lewis did a good job to get pole, so fair play. Second place is OK, first place would be better, there’s a long race ahead and it is fine.”
The German also believes he is in good shape to handle the tyre degradation that it expected to play a decisive role in the race.
“They have a lot of degradation but I am confident because I had some good long runs yesterday,” Rosberg said.
“I’m well prepared and feeling good about it.”
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso was left feeling surprised and commented post-qualifying that a podium is the target at the Singapore Grand Prix. Autosport.com has the news story.
Fernando Alonso says he was surprised his Ferrari Formula 1 team was so strong during qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix.
The Spaniard had been quickest in the first and third practice sessions, and then followed team-mate Kimi Raikkonen in a Ferrari 1-2 in Q1.
Alonso ended up qualifying in fifth, but just two tenths behind polesitter Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes, in what was one of Ferrari’s strongest showings of the 2014 F1 season.
“It was quite a surprise for us, to be honest,” said Alonso. “Two tenths from pole position is something that we could not imagine yesterday.
“In free practice we normally are competitive, and then in qualy we lose some ground. But it didn’t happen here. In qualy we were competitive also, so that was good news.”
Alonso reckons the lower power demands of the Marina Bay circuit were the main reason for Ferrari’s competitive performance.
“The reasons are not clear. Probably the track characteristics suit our car a little bit better,” he said.
“We know that power effect is quite low here.
“I felt confident in the car from lap one.
“We did one minor set-up change in the car, so the car was quite good from the first lap, which also helps the driver to keep doing laps with similar characteristics and performance.
“So a mix of things, but I think on top of those it’s the power effect that in this track helped us a little bit.”
The Ferrari driver said his main goal for the race was a podium finish, as he reckons victory may be unrealistic unless the cars in front hit trouble.
“I think we need to see how the race develops,” Alonso added.
“We’ll see. I think the podium is closer than ever, because the level of competitiveness is quite good this weekend.
“We are competitive and we start in the top five so why not think of the podium? But victory is very optimistic, but we’ll see.”
As for The Iceman, the Scuderia have discovered that a software glitch caused Kimi Raikkonen’s qualifying issue. Autosport.com has the details.
Ferrari has said a software problem was to blame for Kimi Raikkonen’s missed opportunity in Singapore Grand Prix qualifying.
The Finn looked set for one of his strongest performances of a difficult 2014 Formula 1 season as he topped Q1 in Singapore, but the car issue forced him to abandon Q3 after one run, leaving him seventh on the grid.
When asked by AUTOSPORT to describe the problem, Raikkonen replied: “I think it was some electronic thing, so when you tried to apply power it just cut off.
“Hopefully it is just a small thing, but it was big enough to destroy our qualifying in the end.”
Ferrari technical chief Pat Fry apologised to Raikkonen for the issue.
“We are sorry that he had a software problem on his final Q3 run, because he could definitely have got a better result,” said Fry.
Raikkonen said that the Q3 issue had not overshadowed the breakthrough he made with the Ferrari on Saturday.
“We’ve been struggling with the car a bit all weekend, but we kept changing it and we changed it for qualifying, which was good,” he said.
“It was one of the few times that we have changed it to something really good that I wanted.
“Unfortunately we had a problem, but there was a lot of potential today and it was nice to have a good feeling with the car.”
He also felt he had yet to show his full potential before the software glitch.
“I know I kept messing up the middle sector all the time and there was a lot of potential on the other sectors,” said Raikkonen.
“There was a good feeling with the car and I could put it where I wanted.
“It was feeling easier to drive, so it’s a shame what happened today, but that’s our sport.
“Sometimes you hope it would happen during a different weekend when you’re having difficult times.”
Romain Grosjean said continuing Renault engine problems were taking a toll on the whole Lotus Formula 1 team, following a frustrating qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix.
Grosjean was hit by engine issues during the second qualifying segment, which the Frenchman ended as the slowest driver in 16th position.
Both he and team-mate Pastor Maldonado suffered turbo wastegate issues that meant they lacked full power during their qualifying runs.
Grosjean made his feelings clear after being hit by the problem, screaming on the radio: “I cannot believe it! Bloody engine! Bloody engine! We break our balls for this?”
The Frenchman admitted the frustration had got the better of him.
“I had it [the same problem] in FP3, twice in the lap, which wasn’t too bad,” Grosjean said. “Then it was just worse. That’s why I was a bit annoyed.
“Everybody is working so hard. Then you go into qualifying and you know it’s your best shot in a long time, and you know the race is crazy, and P13 is not that far from the points, and then you lose time on the straightline…
“I don’t like to openly complain, but sometimes it’s so hard for all of us. Everybody is trying to do their best.
“It’s hard, it’s hot, it’s humid. We work hard. I take every single risk that I can on the track.
“Last year I was third in qualifying and that lap was probably as good as last year’s in terms of driving. And that was 13th, and 13th is much better than 16th.
“It’s just the amount of problems that we’ve had over the weekend, which is big. Sometimes driveability is not good.
“In free practice it was the downshift, and then this morning it was the same problem as in qualifying.
“We are asking for one clean lap.”
Team-mate Maldonado went out in Q1 and will start the race from 18th position.
Source: Autosport.com