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Vettel Waits; Finally Takes Pole In Singapore

SINGAPORE- Bringing his Red Bull Renault into the pits early after posting a 1:42:849 Saturday
night in the final session of qualifying for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Singapore
was a risk, but for the German, it paid off as Sebastian Vettel managed to just
hold off fellow countryman Nico Rosberg in his Mercedes to take pole. Romain
Grosjean took third following his success in the earlier third practice session.

“It’s a weird feeling to stand in the garage and
with less than two minutes to go and know it’s too late [to head out
again],” he said. “But then it’s much worse when you see the others
on their final attempt and there is nothing you can do because you are stood in
the garage.

“I was watching the sector times of Romain
[Grosjean], Mark [Webber] and Nico [Rosberg] in particular. Mark started with a
purple sector one and was very close in sector two, then Nico had a purple
sector two and then Romain had a purple sector two. But fortunately my last
sector was strong enough to just stay ahead.”

In the opening session, most of the
drivers had medium tires to begin with, but Kimi Raikkonen was wondering more
about his bad back, which might put a damper on his qualifying process. While
Raikkonen was having this problem, Nico Hulkenberg was having another good
session in his Sauber, as the German posted a 1:45:381 quick time with only six
minutes left in the session. Vettel and teammate Mark Webber, had not come out
onto the track yet, but when it happened, Webber overtook Hulkenberg’s best
time, followed by Lewis Hamilton, who had the best time of the session with a 1:44:196. Pastor Maldonado and Paul Di Resta, who
failed to advance for the fifth time in the last eight races, were the early
victims not to qualify for the next session, followed by the regular Caterham
and Marussia drivers.

In the
following session, all of the drivers were on supersofts, and for Vettel, it
paid off as the German went under the 1 minute 42 second mark, winning the
session. However, for Raikkonen, with his bad back, Hulkenberg, Jean-Eric
Vergne, Sergio Perez and Adrian Sutil, all of these drivers failed to advance
to the final session.

In the last
session, Vettel went out fast with a time of 1:42:849, which was a half of a
second faster than Rosberg. But the defending world champion, who is normally
battling it out until the last second, decided to pull into the pits and Rosberg
was only the closest driver to get near Vettel, just nine tenths of a second
off another pole position.

Webber led
the rest finishing in fourth, while Hamilton was fifth. The Ferrari’s were disappointing,
taking Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso to sixth and seventh places,
respectively. Jenson Button was eighth, Daniel Riccardo was ninth, and Estaban
Gutierrez, who competed in his first final round session, rounded out the top
ten.

For Vettel
himself, who was worried a little about qualifying, the same will be said of
this race, which is the most challenging around.

“It’s one of the toughest races we face all year. I
would say one of the toughest physically and mentally because it’s so long and
there are so many corners with hardly any room for mistake. It’s very bumpy,
plus the heat and humidity plays a factor.

“It will be very tough but surely pole is the best
position to start form and we are very happy with that. It’s hard to pass on
this track but because it’s such a long race there will be opportunities for
all of us and usually there will be a safety car at some point in the race. I’m
happy to start from pole and will try to have a good start, settle into a
rhythm and see what we can do.”

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