SPORTS LOG
Lewis Hamilton looks set to lose his lead in the Formula One title race after Sebastian Vettel stormed to pole at the Singapore Grand Prix.
Vettel, who trails the Englishman by three points, fended off a challenge from the rampant Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo to seal the front spot by a third of a second.
The Ferrari ace punched the air with delight and celebrated his 49th career pole like a victory.
He has now secured four poles in the 10 events staged there but Vettel said: “I don’t know where that time came from. I actually struggled this morning. I shouted as loud as the crowd. It was unbelievable.
“I love this track. The car was tricky but was getting better and better. So I’m pleased we got it done. It’s an amazing track when you feel the car was coming together. I knew we had it in us but we had to get there.”
With overtaking virtually impossible at the 3.2-mile street circuit, Vettel will start the race as the clear favourite to move ahead of Hamilton and return to the summit of the standings.
Hamilton’s Mercedes team have long predicted that they would struggle in Singapore and so it proved in qualifying as he finished back in fifth – more than half-a-second adrift of Vettel’s pole lap.
Team-mate Valtteri Bottas was even further back in sixth. On-fire Australia took a 2-1 lead against Belgium yesterday after easi ly winning their Davis Cup semi- final doubles rubber in three impressive sets.
The 6-3 6- 4 6- 0 victory by doubles world No.2 John Peers and his partner Jordan Thompson over Ruben Bemelmans and Arthur de Greef leaves the Belgians needing to come from behind to reach the final.
France took a 2-1 lead at home to Serbia in their semi-final when PierreHugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut beat Fil ip Krajinovic and Nenad Zimonjic 6-1 6-2 7- 6(3). Scots star Gary Anderson slumped to a shock 10-3 loss to Austria’s Mensur Suljovic in the Champions League of Darts.
But Phil Taylor started his title defence in style by coming from behind to beat Adrian Lewis 10-7 in Cardiff.
Lewis had led 7-5 but Taylor reeled off five legs in a row with four ton-plus finishes in the match.
Scot Peter Wright overcame Dave Chisnall 10-5 and there was another shock as Raymond van Barneveld beat world No.1 Michael van Gerwen 10-5. Marc Austin f inished 22nd at triathlon’s World Grand Final in Rotterdam as Spain’s Mario Mola retained his overall world title.
The Scot, 23, was just over three minutes behind race winner Vincent Luis with the Frenchman a mere two seconds clear of Kristian Blummenfelt.