Vettel climbs to an unreachable pole for Mercedes

Sebastian Vettel will start tomorrow from the pole position while Mercedes will occupy the third row of the grid, with 1.5 seconds slower than German driver’s time. Ricciardo and Räikkönen complete qualifying’s TOP3.

With nerves in the throat and nails already bitten, Mercedes’ mechanics were setting up the cars before qualifying. Singapore is a high downforce circuit, with short straights and heavy to brakes, a fact that discourages much the Mercedes engines. That was already seen in practice sessions, but there were still doubts about Mercedes not being able to catch the pole.

The difference between soft and supersoft tires (the two compounds for this Grand Prix) was abysmal. The most competitive cars had come with soft at first, but eventually we saw Lewis Hamilton in the knockout zone. The British came up with supersoft to stay in Q2.

A part from Manor, with Rossi setting a best time half a second slower than Stevens, Maldonado and Sauber were the ones who fell down from Q2, after Button barely saved his place.

The Q2 was dominated by the super soft tires. The only competitive looking McLaren was Fernando Alonso’s, who has finally been eight tenths faster than his teammate. At the end of session Sainz crashed against the wall in fast lap, leaving debris and breaking the suspension. Besides losing the lap, the yellow flag sentenced the Q2 with McLaren, Force India and Sainz out. Grosjean just come into the Q3.

The final part was until then the most awaited. Ferrari and Red Bull had been very competitive during the session while Mercedes showed themselves conservative as Williams could not be into the fight. Among fastest laps we could see Verstappen, who after a great Q2 will start eighth and Grosjean, who closes the TOP10 on the grid.

Vettel eventually impressed everyone as 4 minutes were left, with a time that seemed unattainable for Mercedes. Silver Arrows were prepared for reaching the German driver but could not even approach the Red Bull, who did with Ricciardo.

With the certainty that the pole was secured Ferrari gave everything to Vettel, who exhibited his ability to down the minute-44 and further reduce its stratospheric time over half a second of Ricciardo. Räikkönen and Kvyat set themselves ahead of the two Mercedes, with Bottas and Massa far away.

Hamilton will start tomorrow from the fifth position. The British leaved his cockpit sad, having lost his team’s streak of pole positions from Austria 2014.

Formula 1 fans were still rubbing his eyes and looked forward to the race tomorrow. Ferrari’s last pole was in 2012, and thus Vettel marks his 46^th; last time was in 2013 in Brazil. Will there be more surprises tomorrow?

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