Sebastian Vettel will be starting Sunday night's Singapore Grand prix from the best possible position in terms of his championship fight after securing the all important pole position. Like Monaco, starting from pole position in Singapore almost guarantees the victory, even more so with this season's wider cars, as overtaking is at a minimum.

Vettel's record breaking lap time of 1:38.481 was only a fraction faster than the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who set a 1:39.814 as he gave his all to become the first teenager and Dutchman to secure pole position. This was his last opportunity to do so as he turns 20 on qualifying day for the next race in Malaysia, but the 19 yr old will now have to settle for a front row start instead.

Third quickest was his Red Bull teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, who is now becoming used to being out qualified by the Flying Dutchman but it wasn't by much, the Aussie racer setting a best time of 1:39.840.

"A very strong qualifying performance from both of our drivers. Max and Daniel have been showing great speed around the streets of Singapore all weekend, and indeed we've topped every session apart from the final one that counts in Q3, where Sebastian put in a great lap,” said team boss Christian Horner.

“Starting second and third on the grid gives us strategic options for tomorrow in what will be one of the hardest grands prix of the year. It's great to have both cars right up there and we are looking forward to a hot and humid race tomorrow night."

Kimi Raikkonen will start alongside Ricciardo from fourth position, but more importantly, both Ferrari's and both Red Bull's out-qualified the two Mercedes drivers.

Lewis Hamilton, who has had the upper hand at the past two events, could only muster up fifth place when it came to the crunch, the extra ooompf that Mercedes normally leave until Q3 not coming this time out as the British driver struggled for grip around the Marina Bay circuit. Lewis's teammate Valtteri Bottas will line up alongside him on the third row, however the Finn's best time was 7 tenths slower than Hamilton's.

“That was a very disappointing qualifying session with both cars,” said James Allison. “We knew this would be a tough weekend for us but we had nevertheless hoped for better. It was clear that we didn't have the pace to compete for pole today. Now, we have to put this result behind us and start to think about how we can limit the damage tomorrow, or perhaps better still make the most of the opportunities this track routinely creates on race day.”

Nico Hulkenberg will start seventh for Renault, but the talk of the session was the two McLaren Honda's of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, who qualified eighth and ninth respectively.

“This is a track that we knew would play to the strengths of our package, so it was pleasing to see our drivers pushing the limits right up at the sharp end of the field,” said Eric Boullier. “Getting two cars into the top 10 today sets us up well for what is always a difficult, demanding and unpredictable race. We hope to come away from it tomorrow with more valuable world championship points.”

Carlos Sainz rounded out the top ten for Toro Rosso.