Vettel edges out Rosberg to clinch pole

SINGAPORE: Sebastian Vettel stormed to his fifth pole position of the season at the Singapore Grand Prix Saturday as the brilliant young German stepped closer to his fourth world title in a row.

Red Bull’s German pilot timed a scorching 1min 42.841sec around the spot-lit Marina Bay street circuit to take first place on the grid ahead of Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg.

Lotus driver Romain Grosjean will start third, ahead of Vettel’s Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber, Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, second in the overall standings behind Vettel, could only manage sixth fastest ahead of Mclaren’s Jenson Button, Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Gutierrez.

But the evening belonged, once again, to Vettel, who set the two fastest times and will now be favourite to claim his third win in a row in Singapore and his fourth out of the last five races.

Vettel’s final time was so quick that he could afford to return to the garage early and watch the others.

Vettel, Webber, Rosberg and Hamilton led the cars into the Q3 shoot-out. It was no surprise that Vettel stayed fastest, but he did it in astounding style, lowering his previous time and earning enough breathing space to garage early.

The 26-year-old has a 53-point lead in the standings and victory on Sunday will put him closer to matching Michael Schumacher and Juan Manuel Fangio by winning four championships in a row.

VETTEL FINED FOR SPEEDING

Vettel has been fined 200 euros ($270) for speeding in the pitlane -an amount he earns in less than 10 minutes. The young German was zapped clocking 61.7 kilometres (38 miles) per hour late on Friday, just nudging over the 60 kph allowed