HAMILTON WITH "MAGIC" POLE LAP

Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix with a blistering lap of the Marina Bay Street Circuit that left him three tenths of a second clear of Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen. Hamilton’s title rival Sebastian Vettel could only manage third place.

In Q1, after Kimi Räikkönen set the early pace with a time of 1:38.534, red Bull’s bypassed the Finn with a time of the 1:38.153. Verstappen then slotted into P3 with his opening lap of 1:38.715. Vettel, who seemed to back out of his opening lap, then found clear air to post a time of 1:38.218.

The was good enough for P2 behind Ricciardo. Haas’ Romain Grosjean then arrived with a time of 1:38.685 to shuffle Verstappen down to fifth, as the clock counted down towards the final runs. In the drop zone as those runs began were McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne, Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley and Williams drivers Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin.

It was Ericsson who made the jump to safety in the dying seconds. The Swede vaulted to P13 and that dropped Haas’ Kevin Magnussen to P16 and out of the session. Eliminated behind Magnussen were Hartley, Vandoorne, Sirotkin and Stroll.

The end of the session was nervous too for championship leader Lewis Hamilton. Mercedes elected to run the first session on ultrasoft tyres and as better times came in from rivals in the closing stages Hamilton plummeted down the order. Fortunately for the Briton, he dropped only as far as P14 and he was through to Q2.

In the second session, Ferrari sent Räikkönen and Vettel being out on ultrasoft tyres looking to perhaps set a time good enough to be able to start on the set. Hamilton took top spot with a time of 1:37.344, with Ricciardo slotting into P2.

Verstappen then bypassed both with a lap of 1:37.214. Vettel, meanwhile, was lodged in 10th, while Räikkönen was all the way down in P15 and telling his team the ultrasoft was “just too slow”. In the final runs, both Ferrari drivers moved to hypersofts and Räikkönen jumped to the top of the order with a time of 1:37.194.

Vettel caught traffic on his run and when Bottas improved to P3 after the flag, the Ferrari driver dropped to P6 behind Ricciardo.

Eliminated at the end of Q2 were McLaren’s Fernando Alonso in 11th place, followed by Renault’s Carlos Sainz, Sauber’s Charles Leclerc, his team-mate Ericsson and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly.

In the first runs of Q3 Hamilton staked an early claim to pole position with a superb lap of 1:36.015. Verstappen kept the championship leader in his sights by taking P2 with a time of 1:36.344 and Vettel slotted into P3, although the German was almost six tenths of a second behind title rival Hamilton.

And that was how the top six order stayed. Verstappen went quickest in the second sector on his final run but he later said he was forced to back off in the final sector as he experienced an engine issue.

Vettel, too, began well, running quickest in the first sector but the lap slipped away from the German and he had to settle for third place ahead of Bottas, Räikkönen and Ricciardo.

Seventh place went to Force India’s Sergio Pérez, with the Mexican finishing ahead of Haas’ Romain Grosjean, Force India team-mate Esteban Ocon and Renault’s NIco Hulkenberg.

2018 SINGAPORE GP - QUALIFYING
P.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME	GAP
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	1:36.015
2.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:36.334	+ 0.319
3.	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:36.628	+ 0.615
4.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG	1:36.702	+ 0.687
5.	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:36.794	+ 0.779
6.	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:36.996	+ 0.981
7.	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:37.985	+ 1.970
8.	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:38.320	+ 2.305
9.	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1:38.365	+ 2.350
10.	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:38.588	+ 2.573
Q2 Fastest Time: Kimi Raikkonen - 1:37.194
11.	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:38.641	+ 1.447
12.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Renault	1:38.716	+ 1.522
13.	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	1:38.747	+ 1.553
14.	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:39.453	+ 2.259
15.	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	1:39.691	+ 2.497
Q1 Fastest Time: Daniel Ricciardo - 1:38.153
16.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:39.644	+ 1.491
17.	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	1:39.809	+ 1.656
18.	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:39.864	+ 1.711
19.	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	1:41.263	+ 3.110
20.	Lance Stroll	Williams	1:41.334	+ 3.181
107% time: 1:45.024
F1 HYBRID ERA - MARINA BAY 2014 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:45.681 2015 Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari - 1:43.885 2016 Nico Rosberg - Mercedes AMG - 1:42.584 2017 Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari - 1:39.491 2018 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:36.015 @MakFormula1 - Republic of Macedonia