Nico Rosberg claimed his seventh pole position this season for Mercedes at Marina Bay, as championship rival and team-mate Lewis Hamilton could only record third fastest time.
Hopes of a tight, multi-team battle for pole were dashed in Q2, as Red Bull and Ferrari – down to one car already after early problems for Sebastian Vettel – struggled to get within a second of Rosberg’s benchmark.
Rosberg was the only driver to make it below the one minute, 43 seconds time around the Singapore Grand Prix street circuit in Q3, and his first run proved enough to get the job done as he lapped in one minute, 42.584 seconds to claim P1 by over half a second.
Hamilton lost track time to a hydraulic valve problem in Friday’s practice session and has struggled under braking all weekend so far, and he endured a difficult time again in qualifying.
The two-time race winner trailed Rosberg by more than seven tenths of a second after his first run in Q3 and failed to improve on his second run.
That gave Daniel Ricciardo an opportunity to steal a front row start for Red Bull Racing, as the honey badger leapt to second with a superb one minute, 43.115 seconds effort at the end.
His team-mate Max Verstappen was fourth quickest, just 0.040 seconds down on Hamilton.
Kimi Raikkonen qualified his Ferrari fifth fastest, over six tenths down from Verstappen, while team-mate Sebastian Vettel was knocked out in Q1 after his Ferrari appeared to suffer a suspension failure.
Vettel initially tried to press on and drag a lap time out of the car anyway, before pitting for repairs but the team had no time to complete.
Ferrari revealed later on that it was an anti-roll bar problem which affected Vettel’s qualifying. The four-time Singapore Grand Prix winner and last year’s pole man will start the race last on the grid…
Carlos Sainz claimed a superb sixth for Toro Rosso, ahead of team-mate Daniil Kvyat (who only made one run in Q3) and Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg.
Fernando Alonso qualified his McLaren-Honda ninth quickest, fractionally ahead of Sergio Perez.
Force India’s Perez may yet face sanction for overtaking Esteban Gutierrez under yellow flags in Q2.
Williams drivers Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were P11 and P12, Bottas missing the Q3 cut by just 0.003 seconds, and both affected badly by those yellow flags after Romain Grosjean crashed his Haas at the Turn 10 left-hander.
Jenson Button damaged his McLaren-Honda’s left-rear wheel against the wall at Turn 14 on his final flying lap, so failed to improve and ended up P13.
Esteban Gutierrez was P14, just ahead of Haas team-mate Grosjean, whose crash also hindered Hulkenberg and Gutierrez at the end of Q2.
Marcus Ericsson’s Sauber rounded out the top 16, electing to save tyres knowing he could do no better after Vettel’s misfortune allowed him passage to Q2.
Ericsson made it through to Q2 with what he described as a “nice lap” at the end of Q1.
That put him almost four tenths clear of the Q1 dropouts, headed by Kevin Magnussen’s Renault, Felipe Nasr, and Jolyon Palmer, these three all covered by just 0.135 seconds.
Pascal Wehrlein was P20 for Manor, over six tenths up on team-mate Esteban Ocon, while Vettel’s broken Ferrari trailed the entire field, almost a second further back.
Qualifying standings, Singapore Grand Prix:
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m42.584s
2 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m43.115s
3 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m43.288s
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Renault 1m43.328s
5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m43.540s
6 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m44.197s
7 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m44.469s
8 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m44.479s
9 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1m44.553s
10 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m44.582s
11 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m44.740s
12 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m44.991s
13 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1m45.144s
14 Esteban Gutierrez Haas-Ferrari 1m45.593s
15 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1m45.723s
16 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1m47.827s
17 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1m46.825s
18 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1m46.860s
19 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1m46.960s
20 Pascal Wehrlein Manor-Mercedes 1m47.667s
21 Esteban Ocon Manor-Mercedes 1m48.296s
22 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m49.116s
Singapore Grand Prix qualifying review as reported by Formula1.com:
Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg will start Sunday’s 2016 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix from pole position after dominating qualifying at Marina Bay and beating Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo by half a second, with team mate Lewis Hamilton third. At the other end of the grid will be four-time winner here, Sebastian Vettel, who finished last after a suspension problem on his Ferrari prevented him setting a competitive time.
Hamilton and Rosberg set the initial pace in Q1, with 1m 45.316s and 1m 45.167s respectively on the ultrasoft tyres that all the frontrunners ran, but it became clear they were just banker laps as Raikkonen bettered that with 1m 44.964s as Verstappen did 1m 45.036s for second. Then, as Vettel struggled to 22nd place with a suspected broken front anti-roll bar, Ricciardo banged in a 1m 44.255s to go fastest by seven-tenths.
Improvements by Perez, McLaren’s Jenson Button and Kvyat left Rosberg down in an eventual eighth, while further back a great late lap put Marcus Ericsson and Sauber into Q2 at Kevin Magnussen’s expense. The Dane’s 1m 46.825s improvement for Renault left him 17th, ahead of Felipe Nasr’s Sauber on 1m 46.860s, Jolyon Palmer’s Renault on 1m 46.960s, and the Manors of Pascal Wehrlein and Esteban Ocon on 1m 47.667s and 1m 48.296s respectively.
The big drama, however, was Ferrari’s failure to rectify Vettel’s problem in time. With 1m 37s remaining, the unhappy German pulled off his gloves and resigned himself to starting from the back row…
Mercedes really turned it on – or up – in Q2 as an excellent lap from Rosberg stopped the clocks in 1m 43.020s, to a watching Vettel’s astonishment. After setting the fastest first sector time Hamilton then lost three-tenths in the next two to finish four-tenths adrift, as Ricciardo’s 1m 43.993s put him third ahead of Verstappen on 1m 44.112s and Raikkonen on 1m 44.159s. Crucially, the Red Bull drivers both used supersoft tyres, meaning they will start the race on the more durable rubber.
Further back, Alonso improved to seventh and Kvyat to sixth, just as Button ran his left rear wheel down the wall in Turn 14 and stopped by Turn 16 with broken steering, and Romain Grosjean put his Haas sideways on into the barriers in a hard shunt in Turn 10.
Easing off for the resulting yellow flags, neither Williams got through, Valtteri Bottas recording 1m 44.740s for 11th ahead of team mate Felipe Massa on 1m 44.991s. Button was stranded on 1m 45.144s in 13th, with Esteban Gutierrez on 1m 45.593s for Haas and Grosjean failing to improve on 1m 45.723s. And Ericsson did not better 1m 47.827s after Sauber chose to save tyres for the race.
It remains to be seen whether there will be any actions after the stewards have investigated some improvements under the yellows, notably after Perez jumped to ninth after overtaking Gutierrez.
After a 10-minute delay while the plastic barriers in Turn 10 were fixed, Q3 saw Rosberg annihilate the opposition with a lap of 1m 42.584s which proved to be a massive 0.704s faster than Hamilton, who struggled to get his left front tyre up to temperature. Raikkonen jumped the Red Bulls with 1m 43.540s, as Ricciardo managed 1m 43.741s on ultrasofts and Verstappen bemoaned a “really bad lap,” of 1m 43.843s in which the brakes were locking at both ends.
Rosberg did not improve on his second run but was still fastest with 1m 42.661s. But Hamilton’s lap was compromised from the start when he ran too deep into Turn 2 and fell to third despite improving to 1m 43.288s as Ricciardo improved more, to 1m 43.115s. Verstappen improved to 1m 43.328s to take fourth as Rakkonen failed to go faster and fell to fifth. The Finn will share row three with the superb Sainz who took his Toro Rosso to 1m 44.197s ahead of relieved team mate Kvyat on 1m 44.469s. Hulkenberg was eighth on 1m 44.479s, as Alonso took ninth with 1m 44.553s and Perez 10th with 1m 44.582s.
Thus the provisional grid will line up: Rosberg, Ricciardo; Hamilton, Verstappen; Raikkonen, Sainz; Kvyat, Hulkenberg; Alonso, Perez; Bottas, Massa; Button, Gutierrez; Grosjean, Ericsson; Magnussen, Nasr; Palmer, Wehrlein; Ocon, Vettel.
Jenson Button revealed only a “tiny tap” of the wall cost him a place in Q3 of qualifying for Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix.
The McLaren-Honda driver found the balance of the car more to his liking in qualifying after struggling in free practice and was on a lap that would have been good enough for the top 10 in Q2 when he grazed the wall with the left-rear wheel exiting the Turn 14 right-hander.
The resulting damage to the wheel caused a puncture, meaning Button was unable to improve on his 13th place and match team-mate Fernando Alonso’s ninth on the grid.
“So many people have hit the wall here this weekend and no issues, then I hit the wall and I get a puncture,” said Button, who claimed he was only half-a-tenth behind Alonso’s lap time when he went off.
“It was a tiny tap, but I pushed the boundaries and thought I could get away with it, and I couldn’t.
“All weekend, I struggled massively with the car, but in qualifying it definitely came to me and the pace was good compared to Fernando.
“It would have been a pretty easy Q3, but you have to get round the lap and I didn’t.”
McLaren had set its sights on being the fourth strongest team for the rest of the season, but Alonso was not disappointed despite ending up behind Toro Rosso drivers Carlos Sainz Jr and Daniil Kvyat as well as Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and Nico Hulkenberg’s Force India.
He did admit to being surprised to be behind the ex-Minardi squad.
“We are more or less in that position, it’s just Toro Rosso is surprisingly good here,” said Alonso when asked why McLaren was not the fourth strongest team in qualifying.
“They have a car that is good for the street tracks with a lot of downforce, a lot of drag but we know after this track we should be in front of them regularly.
“We are still aiming to be the fourth quickest team for the rest of the season, and hopefully tomorrow we will finish in front of them.”
Button also expressed concern about the race pace of Toro Rosso and Force India, but expects the picture to change a little but as the track continues to rubber in.
“The Toro Rosso and the Force India have been very strong on long-run pace, but it seems when the circuit grips up we definitely find better pace,” said Button.
Source: Autosport.com
Sergio Perez is not concerned about being under investigation for failing to slow and overtaking a car under double waved yellow flags during qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix.
The Force India driver said data from his laps in Q2 will prove he slowed down sufficiently despite overtaking Esteban Gutierrez at one point.
“It was a very tricky session with everything,” Perez told reporters after qualifying. “I had three yellow flags on my lap so I was lifting a lot, I lost around six-tenths with yellow flags.”
“And at the end with Esteban he was just very slow so I just managed to keep the line and he obviously was on a very slow lap so he opened up the racing line. Obviously on that certain occasion I lost four-tenths because I had to lift. So I think we have all the data that backs me up so there’s no issue at all.”
Perez fully expects the stewards will clear him. “At the end of the day you have the telemetry that the stewards will check and I have no problem.”
Source: F1Fanatic.co.uk
Four-time Singapore Grand Prix winner Sebastian Vettel will start this weekend’s race from last on the grid following a suspension problem. The Ferrari driver defending his team’s reaction as Autosport.com reports.
Sebastian Vettel says Ferrari had insufficient time to fix his broken Formula 1 car during Singapore Grand Prix qualifying, even had he pitted sooner for repairs.
Vettel qualified slowest of the 22 F1 drivers at the Marina Bay circuit, after his Ferrari suffered a “rare” suspension failure in Q1.
He soldiered on in an attempt to make it through to Q2, but eventually retired the car to the pits.
Vettel said Ferrari realised it would have no time to fix the car after spotting the problem on his out-lap, so he had no choice but to press on regardless.
“Part of the rear suspension broke on the out-lap,” explained Vettel, who suggested Ferrari may now fit his car with a fresh engine for the race, given any subsequent grid penalty would not affect him.
“It felt like the front and rear anti-roll bar broke, and I was going round on three wheels, which doesn’t really work.
“Initially I thought it was at the front, but then quite obviously it was at the rear.
“Then the next lap from the garage side they understood they couldn’t fix it.
“It was clear I wasn’t going to improve significantly to save myself into Q2 to have another look and repair it, so that’s why we decided to come in after the second lap.
“It is a rare failure. It broke, fortunately only on one car and not two.
“It’s a big shame because I think the car was good enough to put on the front row.
“It felt better in the late evening than the afternoon sessions, so I had quite high confidence for qualifying, but couldn’t really show that.”
Vettel scored a dominant pole in Singapore last year and, though he predicted Mercedes would be favourite for this race this year, was surprised that Nico Rosberg was over half a second clear of Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull.
“The gap to Mercedes is big, probably bigger than everyone expected, not just to us, but also to Red Bull,” Vettel added.
“They should have put both cars on the front row, but Daniel did a very good job.”
Team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest after the first runs in Q3, ahead of both Red Bulls, but slipped back to fifth when he failed to improve later.
“The car was behaving pretty decently, apart from lacking a bit of grip overall,” he said.
“There are no major things we could have fixed to go faster, apart from adding grip overall.
“It was a good lap on the first run and then I had to try a bit too much to go faster and it didn’t pay out.”