Sebastian Vettel continued his imperious march towards a fourth consecutive Formula One world championship by storming to pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday after dominating the two days of practice.
The Red Bull driver, who is 53 points ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso with seven races remaining, clocked a fastest lap of one minute 42:841 seconds around the floodlit Marina Bay Street Circuit.
The German will be joined on the front row by compatriot Nico Rosberg for Mercedes, who was just 0.091 seconds behind.
The second row for Formula One's only night race will be occupied by Lotus's Romain Grosjean and Vettel's Australian team mate Mark Webber.
Lewis Hamilton will start in fifth place while Alonso languished in seventh, outqualified by Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa.
Image: Lotus driver Romain Grosjean of France (left), Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel of Germany (centre) and Mercedes' Nico Rosberg of Germany (right) stand together after the qualifying session of the Singapore F1 Grand Prix at the Marina Bay street circuit in Singapore on Saturday
Photograph: Tim Chong/Reuters
