F1 Singapore Grand Prix: Vettel hangs on for pole ahead of Rosberg

Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull Racing scored his fifth pole position of the season with a lap of 1:42.841 around the Marina Bay street circuit ahead of the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix. The defending F1 champion had to endure a nerve-wracking last moments of the third and final sector of qualifying as he opted to make just one attempt at setting a pole position time.

Mercedes AMG's Nico Rosberg came within 0.091 seconds of Vettel's best effort who managed to pip Romain Grosjean of Lotus F1 and Red Bull Racing's Mark Webber to the front row of the grid.

The result meant that Vettel and the Mercedes AMG drivers Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton remain the only drivers to score a pole position in the 13 race weekends of the F1 season so far.

Grosjean briefly looked like he had the pace to challenge Vettel when he set the second fastest time in third free practice that was beaten by the German in the hour long session's final minutes. However, Vettel looked untouchable for the majority of qualifying where he completed just 11 laps as compared to Rosberg's 17 and Grosjean's 21.

In his final F1 weekend as a Ferrari driver (for now) Felipe Massa managed to outqualify teammate Fernando Alonso to take sixth on the grid behind Hamilton.

Behind Alonso McLaren's Jenson Button, Toro Rosso's Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Gutierrez of Sauber F1 rounded out the top 10.

For the second straight race weekend Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus F1 qualified outside the top ten in 13th and was joined by McLaren's Sergio Perez in 14th. Nico Hulkenberg of Sauber F1 who finished fifth at Monza could only manage 11th.

Raikkonen is reportedly suffering from a bad back since third practice and his participation throughout the race weekend is in doubt.