2013 SINGAPORE GP: VETTEL... BORING... POLE... POLE.. POLE... - FORMULA 1

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Sunday, September 22, 2013

2013 SINGAPORE GP: VETTEL... BORING... POLE... POLE.. POLE...

Sebastian Vettel took pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix by 0.09s from Nico Rosberg after gamble in the final session paid off.

The Red Bull driver opted to do just one Q3 run as his initial 1m42.841s lap put him 0.6 seconds clear of his rivals. He had also outpaced the pack by nearly a second in Q2. Vettel's casual approach to the pole shootout almost proved costly, as first Mark Webber, then Nico Rosberg and Romain Grosjean all hinted at pole pace on their second shots. In the end, they all fell short. Rosberg's Mercedes came closest, 0.091 seconds down on Vettel, who is separated from team-mate Webber by Grosjean's Lotus.

Webber was quicker than his Red Bull team-mate in sector one, causing Vettel to bite his nails in the garage, but by the end of the final sector he had dropped 0.3s and had to settle for fourth. Lewis Hamilton's pole position ambitions never materialised as he ended up over 0.4s off Vettel and more than 0.3s off team-mate Rosberg, who put in a storming performance that kept Vettel on edge until he crossed the line less than a tenth off the pole position time.

Ferraris were down in sixth and seventh, with the departing Felipe Massa ahead of team leader Fernando Alonso again. Massa had earlier only just made it beyond Q1 having encountered traffic at the wrong moment.

Esteban Gutierrez was among the stars of qualifying as he put aside recent Saturday woes to reach Q3 for the first time, having first hauled himself out of Q1 at the last moment.
 P.    DRIVER               TEAM                  TIME       GAP  
 1. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull              1:42.841                
 2. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes AMG          1:42.932   + 0.091       
 3. Romain Grosjean       Lotus                 1:43.058   + 0.217       
 4. Mark Webber           Red Bull              1:43.152   + 0.311       
 5. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes AMG          1:43.254   + 0.413       
 6. Felipe Massa          Ferrari               1:43.890   + 1.049       
 7. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari               1:43.938   + 1.097       
 8. Jenson Button         McLaren               1:44.282   + 1.441       
 9. Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso            1:44.439   + 1.598       
10. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber                No time set               
  Q2 fastest time: Sebastian Vettel 1:45.376                 Gap  
11. Nico Hulkenberg       Sauber                1:44.555   + 1.650       
12. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso            1:44.588   + 1.683       
13. Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus                 1:44.658   + 1.753       
14. Sergio Perez          McLaren               1:44.752   + 1.847       
15. Adrian Sutil          Force India           1:45.185   + 2.280       
16. Valtteri Bottas       William               1:45.388   + 2.483       
  Q1 fastest time: Lewis Hamilton 1:44.196                   Gap  
17. Paul di Resta         Force India           1:46.121   + 1.925       
18. Pastor Maldonado      William               1:46.619   + 2.423       
19. Charles Pic           Caterham              1:48.111   + 3.915       
20. Giedo van der Garde   Caterham              1:48.320   + 4.124       
21. Jules Bianchi         Marussia              1:48.830   + 4.634       
22. Max Chilton           Marussia              1:48.930   + 4.734    
107% Time: 1:51.489