Hamilton snatches pole from Rosberg in Singapore

Mercedes unleash power on dying laps of qualifying session

Lewis Hamilton is on pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix after qualifying ahead of teammate Nico Rosberg by just seven thousands of a second. This is Hamilton’s third career pole position in Singapore, a pole position won on the final lap of qualifying as the clock ran out.

Nico Rosberg had provisional pole position as the third qualifying session came to a close, before Hamilton pulled ahead by a sliver, guaranteeing the Brit another pole position and helping his quest to catch Rosberg in the Drivers’ Championship standings. Rosberg would settle for second place whilst a strong run from Daniel Riccardo placed the Aussie third.

Vettel, Alonso, Massa, Raikkonen, Bottas, Kvyat and Magnussen completed the top 10 for tomorrows’ race.

The green light came on to start Q1 at exactly 21:00 local time, followed by a stream of cars heading onto the track. Rosberg, Hamilton, Vergne, Bottas, Massa, Hulkenberg, Kvyat and Perez got the evenings’ session underway with Rosberg heading into the first timed lap of Q1. Carrying too much momentum into turn 8 though, he ran off track, ruining his lap and having to reverse back onto the track for a second attempt.

Vergne set the pace for Q1 a few seconds later before Williams’ Valtteri Bottas quickly moved into provisional first place. As the track had more and more rubber added from the various drivers on laps throughout the free practice sessions, the super-soft tyre continued to be the fastest option – there was a 2.5 second gap between the soft and the super-soft earlier in the week, but the gap was expected to drop in the final session of Q3.

At the midway point of Q1, the Ferrari’s of Alonso and Raikkonen had moved into provisional one-two, but that lasted just seconds before the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton slid into first, with Esteban Gutierrez surprisingly coming second a minute later.

Romain Grosjean, 15 seconds off the pace, ran wide reporting to the team that he had no brake power before his next flying lap was just one second off the pace, throwing him up into seventh.

Not wanting to take any risks after running wide on his first lap, Mercedes sent Nico Rosberg back onto the track with 6 minutes remaining with a new set up super-soft tyres on the car, quickly followed by Hamilton doing the same. Finally both Red Bull’s appeared, again with the super-softs’ as everyone was not willing to risk an early qualifying drop-out.

Ricciardo went fastest on the super-soft tyre before Nico Hulkenberg went even quicker to put him provisional first. The times continued to fall though as Raikkonen moved into first and Button into second. Vettel went fifth on his first flying lap attempt followed by Alonso placing second, putting Ferrari provisional one-two again.

As the chequered flag fell on Q1, the Ferrari’s remained on top with the Mercedes placed third and sixth. At the lower end of the order. Failing to qualify for Q2 was Adrian Sutil, Pastor Maldonado, Jules Bianchi, Kamui Kobayashi, Max Chilton and Marcus Ericcson. Marussia were again able to beat Caterham in the qualifying battle in the dying seconds, handing them the upper hand going into the race as Caterham’s struggles continue.

Massa, Raikkonen and Perez were straight back onto the track for the start of Q2, looking to pick up where they left off from the first session under the lights of Singapore. 1:47.597 was the first time of the session set by Sergio Perez, whilst Raikkonen followed with a fast lap and Alonso with an even quicker lap, putting the Ferrari’s back at the front.

Although off to a strong looking start to the evening, Massa and Bottas started to struggle in Q2 and at the halfway point of Q2 both were sitting in the dropout zone, placed 12th and 13th respectively.

After a quiet minute of downtime, Massa returned to the track with three minutes remaining, looking for an ‘all or nothing’ lap that would see him through to Q3. Lacking confidence in the car though, it would take work from both Williams’ drivers to get the job done. His first fast lap would put him into fourth place with time for one last lap. Rosberg would also come out for one last run whilst Hamilton and both Ferrari’s stayed firmly in the garage.

Unable to make any progress in the last seconds, Button, Vergne, Hulkenberg, Gutierrez, Perez and Grosjean were eliminated from Qualifying. Disappointing as it was for Vergne who had shown terrific strength earlier in the weekend at the Singapore track, it was a good result for Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat who out-qualified his teammate and also made it into the final session of the evening, placing provisional tenth.

Q3 got off to a quiet start as a few minutes passed had passed before the first drivers emerged from their garages. Massa was the first to set down a fast lap with Ricciardo following quickly in second. Alonso and Raikkonen’s first timed laps put them third and fourth, whilst Mercedes appeared to be struggling to get the super-soft to work for them, placing sixth and seventh for Hamilton and Rosberg.

With five minutes remaining, all drivers went back to their garages for a new set of tyres before they would attempt one final dash for pole position. Just 0.275 seconds covered the top seven drivers, meaning it was anyone’s game.

The quiet on track was short lived as Ricciardo and Rosberg quickly reemerged, followed by Hamilton and Kvyat.

Unfortunately whilst winding up for his final run, Raikkonen reported problems with power on the car. He was quickly told be the team to stop the car, ending his Q3 early and unable to compete for pole.

In a surprise turnaround of events, it was ultimately the last fast laps of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg who would sweep in and take first and second place, leaving third to Daniel Ricciardo and teammate Vettel in fourth. Seemingly ‘sandbagging’ throughout the entire session, Mercedes unleashed what appeared to be hidden power to get the job done in the end.

Ferrari, who seemed to be on track for what could have been a top two finish all evening, had to settle with fifth and seventh for Alonso and Raikkonen whilst Massa and Bottas split the Ferrari’s in sixth and eighth. Kvyat and Magnussen completed the top ten.

The 2014 Formula 1 Singapore Airlines Singapore Grand Prix starts tomorrow, Sunday September 21st at 20:00 local time.