Charles Leclerc claimed his third pole position in a row during a scintillating qualifying session for Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Ferrari had been off the pace through Friday practice but unexpectedly emerged into contention in final practice, with Leclerc leading the way.
Leclerc edged Sebastian Vettel in Q2 but come Q3 the four-time World Champion moved clear in the first runs despite brushing the wall through the exit of Turn 19.
Vettel abandoned his second push lap after sliding through Turn 14, having already been down on his personal best, but the pursuing Leclerc was lighting up the timing screens.
Leclerc crossed the line to register a time of 1:36.217 and yelled “look at the time, I lost control three times in that lap” to his engineer as he returned to the pit lane.
Leclerc’s pole also moved him ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas on five pole positions for the campaign.
A slow out-lap and scruffy first effort left Hamilton a second off the pace early in Q3 but he responded on his second effort to secure second on the grid, within two-tenths of Leclerc.
Vettel will start third, while Max Verstappen was fourth for Red Bull, but never featured prominently in the pole position fight.
Bottas was a subdued fifth as his usual gap to Hamilton around the streets of Marina Bay once again materialised.
Alexander Albon was sixth for Red Bull, in front of Carlos Sainz Jr., the Renault pair of Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg, with Lando Norris rounding out the top 10.
Sergio Perez came 0.040s away from making Q3 but will drop from 11th to 16th on the grid on account of a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change.
Antonio Giovinazzi, the faster of the Alfa Romeo drivers, will therefore move up to 11th, in front of Pierre Gasly and Kimi Raikkonen, who hit the Turn 14 wall on his first Q2 push lap.
Kevin Magnussen dragged his off-the-pace Haas into Q2 but was unable to progress any further, finishing as comfortably the slowest of the 15 participants in the session.
Daniil Kvyat was squeezed out of Q1 by just 0.015s as he failed to improve on his final effort, while Lance Stroll had a scruffy first lap on his way to 17th spot.
The recently re-signed Romain Grosjean was a lowly 18th for Haas while George Russell’s encouraging practice pace was not converted come qualifying.
Russell’s first lap wound up being his quickest effort in the wake of a mistake through Turn 7 on his final lap, and he finished six-tenths down on Haas driver Grosjean.
The Williams rookie had placed 15th during Saturday evening’s final practice session.
Outgoing Williams driver Robert Kubica was again slowest, though his three-tenths deficit to Russell was smaller than his overall 2019 average.
Sunday’s 61-lap Singapore Grand Prix is scheduled for 20:00 local time
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