F1 Singapore Grand Prix: Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel On The Pole

 Mr. Vettel’s team mate Kimi Raikkonen was 3rd, and the Red Bulls’ of Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat 2nd and 4th. Lewis Hamilton is 5th on the grid. Team-mate Nico Rosberg is 6th.

Ferrari’s Vettel was pleased with his best lap. “You need to be confident in your car here. It is a street circuit and the better you feel, the closer you can get to the walls, and it is a place where the driver can make a difference.”

Ferrari and Red Bull thrived, Mercedes struggled.

“To be perfectly honest we don’t mind not having them up here,” Vettel said. “We thought yesterday and this morning that they were sandbagging, because they have the strongest package this year. They are difficult to beat so they must have some issues, which is why they are not feeling comfortable, but I don’t think you can rule them out for tomorrow. But they’ve been way too comfortable for too long, and for rest of season we will now go maximum attack.”

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolffsaid that his team needs to get a grip, literally.  “I think it’s not the speed of the car, because a car does not deteriorate from one weekend to the next with a good engine and good downforce,” he said.

“From Friday onwards, we haven’t been able to translate it on the track; we were lacking grip. You start with a certain simulation and what you expect from the track and how you want to set up the car, and it somehow didn’t work for us. We took a wrong direction in the 1st place, and again last night trying to fix things. We cannot switch the tyres on either for single-lap speed runs or on the long runs.

“We are very surprised. We have been very good for 2 years now. This was a massive step backwards. We cannot expect any miracles here. The best we can hope for is to get into the top 4 if there are incidents for others.”

Unless a Mercedes wins at Singapore the world championship duel may have been re-ignited.

Final Positions after Qualifying:

1. Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari 1min 43.885secs,
2. Daniel Ricciardo(Aus)Red Bull 1:44.428,
3.  Kimi Raikkonen(Fin)Ferrari 1:44.667,
4. Daniil Kvyat(Rus)Red Bull 1:44.745,
5.  Lewis Hamilton(Gbr)Mercedes GP 1:45.300,
6.  Nico Rosberg(Ger)Mercedes GP 1:45.415,
7. Valtteri Bottas(Fin)Williams 1:45.676,
8. Max Verstappen(Ned)Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:45.798,
9. Felipe Massa(Bra)Williams 1:46.077,
10.  Romain Grosjean(Fra)Lotus F1 Team 1:46.413,
11.  Nico Hulkenberg(Ger)Force India 1:46.305,
12. Fernando Alonso(Spa)McLaren 1:46.328,
13. Sergio Perez(Mex)Force India 1:46.385,
14. Carlos Sainz(Spa)Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:46.894,
15. Jenson Button(Gbr)McLaren 1:47.019,
16. Felipe Nasr(Bra)Sauber-Ferrari 1:46.965,
17. Marcus Ericsson(Swe)Sauber-Ferrari 1:47.088,
18. Pastor Maldonado(Ven)Lotus F1 Team 1:47.323,
19. Will Stevens(Gbr)Manor Marussia F1 1:51.021,
20. Alexander Rossi (USA) Manor Marussia F1 1:51.523