Singapore, Sep 17: Nico Rosberg secured pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix while Daniel Ricciardo was second.
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Which gives some perspective to how impressive Nico Rosberg’s pole position at the 2016 Singapore Grand Prix is.
Ricciardo finished five tenths behind the German’s time of one minute 42.584 seconds, but he was able to stop a Mercedes lock-out by pushing Lewis Hamilton into third.
Kimi Raikkonen was the sole Ferrari in the top ten after Sebastian Vettel dropped out of qualifying in Q1 with a rear anti-roll bar issue. Ricciardo agreed. “There will be some curveballs I’m sure tomorrow with safety cars and whatnot but yeah, at least we’re at the pointy end”, said the Australian.
“At times it wasn’t clear where we would stack up against Red Bull so I knew I had to pull one out of the bag”. “That was stupid. We’re losing time”, Vettel said after finishing the slowest of the 22 drivers in Saturday’s qualifying.
Behind Rosberg, Ricciardo will line up on super-soft tyres, as will fourth-placed Max Verstappen in the other Red Bull, after using the red-striped compound for their quickest Q2 effort. Obviously we feel it’s a good thing, but let’s see if it makes a difference tomorrow.
“It’s a big shame because I think the auto was good enough to put on the front row”.
The Italian marque, victor of three races and the only team to break Mercedes stranglehold past year, is yet to win this season.
Rosberg trails championship leader and Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton by two points in the championship.
Rosberg who will be starting his 200th Grand Prix this weekend said the team has learnt from last year’s race but remained guarded on the team’s chances. “Nico did a great job and he showed the potential of the auto”.
A four-time champion in Singapore, Vettel could provide a fair bit of excitement on Sunday, as he will attempt to power his Ferrari up the field into the points.
“I wanted to come in, but we stayed out, and then I came in because it was just hopeless, we weren’t quick enough”. Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez settled for the eighth and 10th positions while McLaren’s Fernando Alonso separated the two with a timing of 1:44.553s. “I’m very disappointed”, said Vettel, who was the champion of the race past year.
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The session started in the twilight as the cars went out for their first stints at the end of a sweltering day but McLaren’s Jenson Button grounded to a halt towards the end of his installation lap, bringing out the virtual safety vehicle.
