Rosberg took provisional pole with his first run in Q3, a lap of 1:42.584 putting him seven-tenths of a second clear of Hamilton and over a second clear of the Red Bulls in P4 and P5.
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Nico Rosberg has put his Mercedes in Pole position for the 2016 Singapore Grand Prix, with team mate Lewis Hamilton starting in third behind Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was fourth, but last year’s victor Sebastian Vettel had a disaster in his Ferrari, as a broken anti-roll bar relegated him to the back row of the grid when he failed to get out of Q1.
Lewis Hamilton is hoping luck will be on his side on Sunday after he was emphatically beaten by Nico Rosberg in qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix.
“We made improvements for qualifying, through practice we were still trying to find stuff on the auto, it finally came good in qualifying, it got better, the rhythm was good”. In practice we were still trying to find stuff in the vehicle, and it finally came good in qualifying.
“Nico did a great job in releasing the full potential of the auto”.
Hamilton lost track time to a hydraulic valve problem on Friday and has struggled under braking all weekend so far, and he endured a hard time again in qualifying.
Last year’s victor Sebastian Vettel will start from the back of the grid.
“You don’t feel comfortable and then you can’t take the risk you usually take because you’re just fighting the vehicle”.
Asked if he was apprehensive of having Ricciardo beside him at the start-line, Rosberg said: “Worried?” “Then we made a decision to pit to try and fix it but there was no time to do it”.
Max Verstappen qualified fourth for ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, who was the sole Ferrari driver in Q3, while Toro Rosso enjoyed a hugely impressive session as Carlos Sainz Jr. and Daniil Kvyat finished sixth and seventh.
Romain Grosjean of Haas appeared to lock up his back wheels while in the second qualifying round and crashed heavily into the barriers, but was unhurt.
While Rosberg, who will celebrate his 200th start, turned in arguably the finest qualifying display of his career to thrash the rest of the field, Hamilton will line up only third on the grid.
And this will leave the team’s strategy choices open, as both Red Bull drivers have fresh sets of each tyre compound left for Sunday, including the soft.
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In Q1, in addition to Vettel, both Renaults, the other Sauber of Felipe Nasr and both Manors failed to progress.
