Mercedes’ Hamilton lays down wonder lap for pole in Singapore; Verstappen starts P2 for Red Bull besting Ferrari’s Vettel in P3
After years of sruggle in Singapore at what has often been described as their bogey track Mercedes and their ace driver Lews Hamilton altered the plot of that tired old script by seizing pole under the lights at the beautiful and tricky Marina Bay street circuit in Saturday qualifying. Hamilton hooked up a wonder lap midway throygh Q3, smashing the previous track record with a stunning 1:36.015 and flummoxing his closest rival, Ferrari’s Sebastain Vettel. While Hamilton could not improve his time with nearly half the session remaining and so remained vulnerable to someone bettering it no other competitor could. Only Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who has a decidedly mixed record on tight street circuits, came closest for P2 but was still over 3-tenths adrift of the Englishman’s blazing time.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel appeared to fall victim to poor track managment by the team and more than once found his best efforts stymied by coming up on ill-timed traffic, which obvioulsy cost him valuable time. That said, it didn’t really look like Vettel’s Prancing Horse had anything for Hamilton’s Silver Arrow on thos day and the German could only salvage P3. The Ferrari’s then saw themselves split by Mercedes #2 man Valtteri Bottas who outqulaified his fellow Finn, Kimi Raikkonen, P4 to P5. It was also announced in the two weeks after the Italian GP that Raikkonen will be out at Ferrari in 2019 and the young Sauber driver Charles Leclerc will take his place. Raikkonen will go to Sauber on a 2-year deal. That’s a hefty demotion for the Iceman down to a certain-to-be non-competitive car when he has still been driving decently this year in support of Vettel. But Ferrari have clearly decided that Leclerc is a special talent and youth must be served.
Lining up further back on the grid, Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Daniel Ricicardo could only muster the sixth fatstest time, while the Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon qualified P7 and P9 respectively. Haas’s Romain Grosjean split those Force Indias and will start P8 and Renault ‘s Nico Hulkenberg qualified P10.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Singapore GP:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:39.403 | 1:37.344 | 1:36.015 | |
| 2 | 1:38.751 | 1:37.214 | 1:36.334 | |
| 3 | 1:38.218 | 1:37.876 | 1:36.628 | |
| 4 | 1:39.291 | 1:37.254 | 1:36.702 | |
| 5 | 1:38.534 | 1:37.194 | 1:36.794 | |
| 6 | 1:38.153 | 1:37.406 | 1:36.996 | |
| 7 | 1:38.814 | 1:38.342 | 1:37.985 | |
| 8 | 1:38.685 | 1:38.367 | 1:38.320 | |
| 9 | 1:38.912 | 1:38.534 | 1:38.365 | |
| 10 | 1:38.932 | 1:38.450 | 1:38.588 |
Complete qualifying results availabe via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 starting at 8AM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out whether Hamilton can keep his momentum going and put a stranglhold on the title chase or Vettel can force his way to the front and back into the winner’s circle.