Sunday, 21 September 2014

Singapore GP: Hamilton beats Rosberg to pole by 0.007s

  • Lewis Hamilton beat Formula 1 title rival Nico Rosberg to pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix by seven thousandths of a second.
  • Hamilton was only sixth fastest on his first run in the Q3 top 10 shootout but despite a lock-up at Turn 1 on his final lap, a particularly strong run through the middle part of the lap allowed him to pip Rosberg.

  • Red Bull locked out the second row, with Daniel Ricciardo third ahead of Sebastian Vettel, just half-a-tenth separating the two.
  • Fernando Alonso was fifth fastest, only a tenth behind the lead Red Bull, although Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was not able to do better than seventh after suffering a car problem on his second run.
  • Splitting the Ferraris was Felipe Massa, the Williams driver putting in an impressive lap to go fastest in Q3 on first-run times, but only able to make a tiny improvement on his second lap.
  • Valtteri Bottas was eighth in the second Williams, the Finn unable to improve on his second run.
  • Kevin Magnussen was ninth, only 0.569s off Hamilton's pole position time, while Daniil Kvyat was slowest in Q3 after having only one set on super-soft rubber available for the final session.
  • Jenson Button and Jean-Eric Vergne were in the top 10 in Q2 on their first runs, but with both Williams drivers setting slow times after choosing to run used super-softs for their first run, were always in danger of missing the cut.
  • They were bumped down to 11th and 12th when Massa and Bottas improved on fresh rubber.

  • Button was able to improve on his second run, but a lock-up at the hairpin cost him time and he missed the cut by 23 thousandths of a second, ending up 11th.
  • Vergne was unable to improve on his second run, complaining about front-end grip and suffering a costly lock-up, meaning he qualified 11th.
  • Force India pairing Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez also both failed to improve on their second runs, ending up 13th and 15th respectively.
  • They were split by Esteban Gutierrez, showing a strong turn of pace in the upgraded Sauber.
  • Romain Grosjean was slowest of those who made it to Q2, complaining vociferously over the radio about an engine problem that cost him time.
  • Adrian Sutil came close to escaping Q1, but failed to relegate Perez into the dropzone with his final lap in the first segment of qualifying and ended up 17th.
  • Pastor Maldonado blamed a power unit problem on his final run for failing to reach Q2.
  • He was unable to fully recharge the battery, meaning he was lacking full power on his final lap, ending up 18th, behind Jules Bianchi.
  • The Frenchman put in a superb lap on his final effort to jump ahead of team-mate Max Chilton, who ended up 21st, with Caterham driver Kamui Kobayashi doing a good job to separate the pair.
  • Marcus Ericsson joined the session late after the Caterham team had to work flat out to solve an electrical problem that had struck in free practice, ending up last.
Pos         Driver                        Car                            Time        Gap
1          Lewis Hamilton         Mercedes                    1m45.681s -
2         Nico Rosberg            Mercedes                    1m45.688s 0.007s
3          Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull/Renault           1m45.854s 0.173s
4          Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull/Renault            1m45.902s 0.221s
5          Fernando Alonso     Ferrari                          1m45.907s 0.226s
6          Felipe Massa          Williams/Mercedes         1m46.000s 0.319s
7          Kimi Raikkonen       Ferrari                          1m46.170s 0.489s
8          Valtteri Bottas        Williams/Mercedes          1m46.187s 0.506s
9          Kevin Magnussen   McLaren/Mercedes         1m46.250s 0.569s
10        Daniil Kvyat           Toro Rosso/Renault         1m47.362s 1.681s
11        Jenson Button         McLaren/Mercedes         1m46.943s 1.262s
12        Jean-Eric Vergne    Toro Rosso/Renault         1m46.989s 1.308s
13       Nico Hulkenberg     Force India/Mercedes      1m47.308s 1.627s
14       Esteban Gutierrez    Sauber/Ferrari                  1m47.333s 1.652s
15       Sergio Perez            Force India/Mercedes      1m47.575s 1.894s
16       Romain Grosjean     Lotus/Renault                   1m47.812s 2.131s
17       Adrian Sutil             Sauber/Ferrari                  1m48.324s 2.643s
18      Pastor Maldonado    Lotus/Renault                   1m49.063s 3.382s
19      Jules Bianchi             Marussia/Ferrari               1m49.440s 3.759s
20      Kamui Kobayashi     Caterham/Renault             1m50.405s 4.724s
21      Max Chilton            Marussia/Ferrari                1m50.473s 4.792s
22      Marcus Ericsson     Caterham/Renault               1m52.287s 6.606s

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