Vettel takes Singapore pole

“For me it felt like I was driving at my best in the race”. The German started from pole and led all 61 laps, managing the race perfectly through two appearances from the Safety auto .

The German shouted over the team radio that there was a man on track as race stewards instantly unfurled their yellow flags, ordering the drivers to slow down. The casually dressed man soon climbed over a trackside barrier and off the track and the race resumed.

Maybe we can make the impossible possible.

Behind the main title contenders, there was a superb but in the end controversial drive by 17-year-old Max Verstappen who carved his way through the field from the back of the grid to finish eighth, but defied an order from his Toro Rosso team to allow teammate Carlo Sainz past in the closing stages. But all we have to do is look after ourselves – maximum attack and what they do is not in our hands.

On this occasion the spectator was casually wandering along with his hands in his pockets as Vettel approached him at speeds close to 180mph. We still have a small chance.

That is the first time Ferrari have had both drivers on the podium this season – and only the second time that Mercedes have missed it completely. I put three or four seconds between Daniel and me, so that we could react in case he dived into the pits and tried the undercut.

However, the Brackley-based squad were off the pace during FP2 and FP3 and their struggles were confirmed during qualifying with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel taking pole ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull. There were signs of it during qualifying when Vettel managed to take pole, with the Mercedes drivers down in fifth and sixth. Again, Ricciardo began to erode the margin, only for another safety auto period to effectively destroy the Australian’s hopes of catching up by exploiting his superior long-stint pace.

“I don’t remember another time in my Formula One career where something like this has happened, where we have not changed anything on the vehicle but we are a second and a half down”.

The same cannot be said for championship leader Lewis Hamilton, who ran fourth early only to find himself slowly losing power throughout the race.

“It was actually really challenging and these tyres for some reason aren’t working on our auto “, Hamilton said.

While going into the Singapore GP Hamilton led his team-mate by 53 points, as Formula 1 heads to Japan, the gap between the two is now merely 41 points. Sorry! I don’t know, it’s a surprise.

The night race will take place despite the hazy conditions caused by farmers burning forests in neighboring Indonesia, and organizers said pollution masks will be on sale.

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