Hamilton takes Pole over Rosberg by mere thousands of a second, Ricciardo a strong 3rd
It was truly last man standing Saturday under the enchanting lights of the Singapore street circuit as Englishman Lewis Hamilton pipped his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg by a very Bondian .007 seconds to take Pole for Sunday’s Grand Prix. Even as it seemed that first the Williams of Felipe Massa and then the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo had done enough to grab the top spot, the Silver Arrows surged in the dying seconds of Q3 as they have so frequently this season. Ricciardo was left with the consolation of 3rd position on the race grid, while Massa was pushed down to 6th when the other Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel took 4th and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso grabbed 5th.
It made for a strong day for the Scuderia a week after long-time leader Luca Di Montezemolo got the sack by Fiat-Chrysler chairman Sergio Marchionne with the big boss also taking over Ferrari’s race operations. If not for software issues that brought Kimi Raikkonen’s Q3 session to a premature end Ferrari’s resurgent day might have been even better. With the tight Singapore street circuit favoring downforce and handling over top line speed, as well as almost always featuring a Safety Car period due to shunts, it could be Red Bull’s or Ferrari’s chance to upend Mercedes’ seemingly inevitable script of weekly victory.
Rounding out the top 10 were Massa’s young Williams’ teammate Valtteri Bottas in 8th, McLaren’s rookie Kevin Magnussen out-qualifying veteran teammate Jenson Button again for 9th and Torro Rosso’s 20-year-old Russian sensation Daniil Kvyat grabbing 10th.
Top 10 Quali results:
| Pos | No | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:46.921 | 1:46.287 | 1:45.681 | 17 |
| 2 | 6 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:47.244 | 1:45.825 | 1:45.688 | 19 |
| 3 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:47.488 | 1:46.493 | 1:45.854 | 12 |
| 4 | 1 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull Racing-Renault | 1:47.476 | 1:46.586 | 1:45.902 | 15 |
| 5 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1:46.889 | 1:46.328 | 1:45.907 | 16 |
| 6 | 19 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1:47.615 | 1:46.472 | 1:46.000 | 20 |
| 7 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | Ferrari | 1:46.685 | 1:46.359 | 1:46.170 | 14 |
| 8 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1:47.196 | 1:46.622 | 1:46.187 | 18 |
| 9 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1:47.976 | 1:46.700 | 1:46.250 | 18 |
| 10 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | STR-Renault | 1:47.656 | 1:46.926 | 1:47.362 | 21 |
Full Qualifying results via Formula1.com.
Live coverage of tomorrow’s night race at the beautifully lit Marina Bay Street Circuit, one of the most visually captivating and physically demanding on the schedule, begins tomorrow at 7:30am Eastern on NBCSports.