SINGAPORE: Sebastian Vettel put pole position on the line with a bold and risky gamble that paid off, after an anxious wait, at the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday.
Red Bull’s triple Formula One world champion was able to celebrate his 41st career pole while watching the monitors in the team garage after deciding not to go out for a final quick lap around the floodlit Marina Bay street circuit.
The championship leader had stormed to the fastest time ever seen in Singapore and retreated to the garage content that his one minute 42.841 second lap would be enough to hold off his rivals.
It turned out closer than he had imagined, with fellow-German Nico Rosberg ending the session just 0.091 seconds slower for Mercedes to line up alongside on the front row of the grid for Sunday’s race.
Lotus’s Romain Grosjean and Vettel’s Red Bull team mate Mark Webber qualified third and fourth.
Kimi Raikkonen, the other Lotus driver who is set to join Ferrari next season, could only manage 13th place after requiring a painkilling injection in his lower back before qualifying.
The Finn was seven-tenths of a second slower than his team mate Grosjean.
“I knew we had a cushion which is why we decided not to run again but the thing you don’t know is how much the track improves and I’m sure there was a little bit of track ramping up,” Vettel told reporters after his fifth pole of the season.
“We thought it was good enough… but probably a bit close.”
Vettel now looks set fair to record a hat-trick of victories in Singapore and extend his 53-point lead over nearest rival Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, who could only finish seventh.
Meanwhile, Force India continued to struggle as Adrian Sutil will start Sunday’s race from 15th position on the grid and Paul di Resta from 17th.
Di Resta was eliminated in Q1 after timing 1:46.121 while Sutil could not make it to Q3 after managing a 1:45.185 in Q2.
Lewis Hamilton was fifth in the second Mercedes and behind him were the two Ferrari drivers – Felipe Massa and Alonso.
McLaren’s Jenson Button, Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo and Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez completed the top 10.
Sutil said the team was still fighting to understand and rectify the problem.
“P15 is disappointing because it’s some way off where we were aiming to be. We are just too slow to fight for the top ten at the moment and everyone is working hard to try and understand where we are losing out. All we can do is keep fighting tomorrow and if we do a good strategy we can hopefully gain some places,” the German racer said. (Agencies)