Rosberg eclipses Hamilton for first ever Singapore pole

In the previous eight races of the Singapore GP, the pole-sitter has won the race six times and Rosberg, who is two-race winning streak, will want to make it count here on Sunday to lead the championship once again.

Kimi Raikkonen was fifth fastest in his Ferrari and will be joined on the third row of the grid by Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jr.

In fact, just one of the top 10 managed to improve on his first flying lap time-Ricciardo.

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.

“We couldn’t save the vehicle for the second qualifying and have a look, unfortunately we ran out of time. I’ve just not been able to string them together”.

Hamilton added: “It has not been my weekend so far”.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen (1:43.540) and Scuderia Torro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz Jr (1:44.197) will start on Row 3, while the top 10 positions are completed by Torro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat (1:44.469), Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg (1:44.479), McLaren’s two-time world champion Fernando Alonso (1:44.553) and the second Force India auto of Sergio Perez (1:44.582).

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen qualified fifth but teammate Sebastian Vettel starts last after his vehicle had an anti-roll bar failure in the Q1 session.

“The waters were muddied further for Hamilton in Friday practice when he was unable to complete his race simulation runs after his vehicle suffered a hydraulics issue, giving the team just 10 laps of data to scour over ahead of the grand prix”.

“I said over the radio that we were losing time and that it was stupid”.

“We made improvements through practice, and it finally came good in Qualifying”.

“We qualified on the Super Softs for Q2, so we’ll start on that tyre”.

“We knew it would be hard to try and get in front of Mercedes, but it was nice to at least get one”.

“If we get a good start and if we get track position we can control the race”.

“On the face of it, I’m pleased”.

In the battle for the fourth in the constructors title with Williams, Force India had a mixed day with Nico Hulkenberg qualifying eighth and Sergio Perez at 18th.

“I would love to get a win this year, obviously we’ve come close but haven’t held the big trophy on Sunday”, Ricciardo, who has three second-place finishes this season, told reporters.