Singapore Grand Prix (2013) Qualifying: Vettel on Pole

Sebastian Vettel has put his Red Bull in pole position for tomorrow’s Singapore Grand Prix with a single lap in final in final qualifying.

After romping away to a win in Monza two weeks ago, Sebastian Vettel was sitting on a lead of 53 points in the F1 drivers championship.

And if today’s performance under the lights in Singapore is anything to go by, he’s now all but unstoppable.

In final qualifying Vettel posted a time that was a clear tenth faster than anyone else, and he did that in a single run, spending the rest of final qualifying sat in his car in the garage watching his monitor to see if anyone else came close.

The closest was the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg – who takes second place on the grid tomorrow – with the Lotus of Romain Grosjean in third and the second Red Bull of Mark Webber in fourth place.

The best Lewis Hamilton could manage in his Mercedes was fifth, but Ferrari fared worse still with the soon to depart Felipe Massa in sixth and the disgruntled Fernando Alonso in seventh.

Jenson Button at least got the beleaguered McLaren in to final qualifying, taking eighth spot (team mate Sergio Perez could only manage fourteenth), Webber’s replacement at Red Bull next year, Daniel Ricciardo, took ninth for Red Bull juniors and Esteban Gutierrez rounded out the top ten for Sauber.

Outside the top ten, Kimi Raikkonen could only manage 13th (a bad back, apparently, to blame, and not his depleted bank account) and Paul di Resta a poor 17th, with the whole grid propped up by the Caterhams and Marussias (in that order).