Singapore F1 Grand Prix 2016 Qualifying: Saturday's Results, Times, Final Grid

Nico Rosberg claimed his seventh pole position of the season at the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday, as he set an impressive lap time of one minute, 40.245 seconds in qualifying.

Rosberg’s Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton looked like taking second place after his first run in Q3, but Daniel Ricciardo came out of nowhere to pip him right at the death, per Formula 1:

As always on street circuits, overtaking opportunities are hard to come by at Marina Bay, which explains why six of the last eight winners in Singapore have started from pole.

In Q1, Ferrari’s chances of catching Mercedes at the top of the constructors’ standings suffered a big blow, as Sebastian Vettel was forced to retire.

The German was experiencing mechanical issues with his car, and the team didn’t have time to fix them ahead of Q2. As such, Vettel will now start Sunday’s Grand Prix at the very back of the pack.

After the incident, he told reporters that he’s very disappointed with the situation:

Hamilton and Rosberg struggled in the opening exchanges, as Ricciardo topped the standings after the first session, per Formula 1:

In Q2, there was yet more car drama, but this time for Haas and McLaren. Romain Grosjean’s rear tyes locked up on Turn 2 and sent him spiralling into the barriers, while Jenson Button’s steering broke after he clipped the wall.

Elsewhere, Mercedes were looking good on the ultrasoft tyres, as they upped their pace in the second session.

Rosberg improved by over two seconds to lead the pack with a 1:43.020 lap, while Hamilton sat in second four-tenths back. Here’s a look at the full Q2 leaderboard.

Grosjean’s unfortunate crash saw Q3 delayed by 10 minutes, but when it did get under way, it was a fast and furious shootout.

Rosberg came out on his first lap with a 1:42.584, which was enough to get him to the top of the leaderboard and seven-tenths ahead of Hamilton.

The Englishman had trouble in the middle sector and surrendered plenty of time, and he couldn’t improve matters second time around after an early error.

In fact, just one of the top 10 managed to improve on his first flying lap time—Ricciardo. Out of nowhere, he set a 1:43.115 to qualify in second.

All eyes will be on Rosberg in Sunday’s race, however. His qualifying lap was excellent in tricky circumstances, and he’ll be very hard to overtake in the race.

Hamilton has plenty of work to do if he’s to catch his team-mate, while Ricciardo is very much in with a chance of glory. It’s all set to be a very tense race in Singapore.