Rosberg on pole for Singapore, Hamilton third

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg will be on pole position for Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix at the Marina Bay circuit.

Rosberg secured his first-ever pole position in Singapore, and the 200th of his career, with a time of 1:42.584.

Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull outpaced championship leader Lewis Hamilton to take second on the grid, with the defending world champion making an error on turn two and missing the apex on turn three, and then made another mistake on turn seven.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen took fourth ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, while Sebastian Vettel will start last after suffering a technical problem.

Romain Grosjean of Haas and McLaren's Jenson Button failed to make the top ten after crashing in qualifying.

Mercedes executive director Paddy Lowe was delighted by Rosberg's flying lap, but admits that Hamilton struggled for rhythm after a series of technical problems over the weekend and a locked wheel in final practice.

"We didn’t see Nico putting that lap together. Lewis has struggled to get a lap in practice. He put a good time together on the super soft, but on the ultra soft he hasn’t great sessions, or the practice that Nico had," he said.

"This is a course that you need to concentrate on the driving rather than the set up."

Lowe says he does not see Red Bull's use of the ultra soft tyre tomorrow will necesarily be an advanathe for Red Bull.

"Red Bull’s use of the ultra soft tomorrow means they can maybe run longer, but then we have two softs and they only have one," he said.

"There are games to play, and in the mix we will get a whole load of safety cars.”

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