Singapore Grand Prix Qualification: Lewis Hamilton Takes Stunning Pole Just Ahead Of Title Rival

Lewis Hamilton took pole position for tomorrow’s Singapore Grand Prix with a stunning lap that just about squeezed out his title rival and teammate, Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton was just 0.07 seconds ahead of the German driver, but what was even more surprising was the fact that both Red Bull and Ferrari managed to keep up with Mercedes for pretty much all of qualification. The entire qualifying session was arguably the most hotly contested and thrilling of the season so far, and it even looked at one point as if Mercedes were going to be beaten to pole position on the grid.

In the top 10 shoot-out, which is where the ten drivers who have so far provided the fastest laps go up against one another to see who can go fastest, Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was on top going into the last few seconds. However the Australian racer ultimately finished third ahead of his teammate, four time world champion Sebastian Vettel, and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

Rosberg, who currently leads the Championship by 22 points going into the race, was the most disappointed with Hamilton’s stunning final lap. When he learned that the Englishman had just pipped him to first place, the usually calm and collected racer bellowed out “Damn it!” over the radio.

Hamilton is now perfectly placed to inflict another blow to Rosberg’s title charge. After his victory in Monza two weekends ago, Hamilton believes he will significantly have the upper hand over his rival for the final run of races if he does come out on top in the race tomorrow.

After qualifying, Hamilton told BBC News, “That’s probably the most exciting qualifying session I’ve had for a long time. Where there’s a lot of people in the mix and you have to be spot on. I guess no-one was expecting to see how close everyone was. I saw the Ferraris very close and for it to end up as it did is great for our team.”

Discussing his final lap, Hamilton noted, “The last lap I locked up into turn one and lost quite a bit of time but managed to pull it back. I lost 015-0.2 secs but I kept going and it got better and better on that lap. It ended up very close.”

After qualification, Mercedes took to their Twitter account to show just how close it was.

Did we mention what 0.007s look like in real terms? Yep, that’s right, 33.5 cm. #RadioSinga #SingaporeGP pic.twitter.com/yH6ZbaFMgm

— MERCEDES AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) September 20, 2014

[Image via BBC]