Singapore Qualifying: That's why Lewis gets the big bucks!

Hamilton in the #44 silver car powered around the unforgiving Marina Bay Circuit in a best time of 1:36.015 was over three seconds better than last year's pole-winning time, three tenths up on next best on the night Max Verstappen, six tenths up on Vettel and seven tenths up on his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.

The record-breaking lap came on Hamilton's first run in Q3, a jaw-dropper that was simply not going to be beaten and despite attempts in the final run, no one came close including the pole-winner himself who aborted his last attempt - he had already done the business.

It was one of those that came out of the blue, when it did it was sheer brilliance which stunned everyone including himself as he sent a clear message when he bowed and hugged the front of his chariot in adoration, respect and perhaps disbelief.

Hamilton said of his 79th top spot start, "Wow, wow. That was a hard qualifying session. That lap felt like magic. I don't know where it came from but it all came together. Huge thank you to all the team. Everyone is working so hard to pull out extra bits. For that one lap I managed to get it right."

"Honestly, I'm super overwhelmed. My heart is racing. I don't think there was a moment in the lap that was wide or any problems. It was just perfectly to the limit. It felt like one of the best laps I remember feeling."

"Monaco on steroids," added Hamilton later.

Verstappen's lap was equally impressive as the Renault powered Red Bull seriously lacked horses when needed, thus to beat the Ferrari duo and steal a front row start was a mega-achievement. His teammate Daniel Ricciardo was sixth-tenths slower in sixth.

The Dutchman was happy, "This feels like a victory. The amount of problems I've had today with the engine, not having a smooth run, to be second is unbelievable. It just shows we have an amazing car."

"We just have to make sure we have a clean start and from there on anything is possible. We need to sort out the engine for tomorrow but at least I'm happy with the car."

After showing their hand in FP3, Ferrari started the session as favourites but Sebastian Vettel could not live with the pace when it mattered, not helped by the German not quite finding the sweet spot.

Vettel commented, "It's not ideal. We wanted to get pole, we didn't. For us it was a bit of a messy qualifying session. At the end there was too much time missing. It's never ideal when you have mini races on the out lap but there were a lot of cars around."

"I can't blame it on that, in the end we had two laps and they were both not good enough. I think we have a good race car. It's a bit more difficult further back but I think we have."

Bottas was fourth fastest ahead of Raikkonen and Ricciardo.

Best of the Rest was Sergio Perez in the Force India in seventh, a whopping 1.9 seconds off the pole time but 0.4 of a second up on Haas driver Romain Grosjean in eighth.

Esteban Ocon was ninth in the other Force India, a couple of tenths up on Nico Hulkenberg in the Renault.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso was 11th, outqualifying his teammate Stoffel Vandoorne for the 20th race in a row. Vandoorne failed to get out of Q1, his lap time was eight tenths shy of his teammate in the early part of the session.

Williams drivers Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll were slowest of all, in 19th and 20th respectively. They were easily the slowest cars by nearly 1.5 seconds off their closest rivals and an incredible three seconds off the pace - they

In Q1, after Räikkönen set the early pace with a time of 1:38.534, Red Bull’s bypassed the Finn with a time of the 1:38.153. Verstappen then slotted into P3 with his opening lap of 1:38.715.

Vettel, who seemed to back out of his opening lap, then found clear air to post a time of 1:38.218. The was good enough for P2 behind Ricciardo. Grosjean then arrived with a time of 1:38.685 to shuffle Verstappen down to fifth, as the clock counted down towards the final runs.

In the drop zone as those runs began were Vandoorne, Ericsson, Hartley, Stroll and Sirotkin.

It was Ericsson who made the jump to safety in the dying seconds. The Swede vaulted to P13 and that dropped Magnussen to P16 and out of the session. Eliminated behind Magnussen were Hartley, Vandoorne, Sirotkin and Stroll.

The end of the session was nervous too for championship leader Lewis Hamilton. Mercedes elected to run the first session on ultrasoft tyres and as better times came in from rivals in the closing stages Hamilton plummeted down the order. Fortunately for the Briton, he dropped only as far as P14 and he was through to Q2.

In the second session, Ferrari sent Räikkönen and Vettel being out on ultrasoft tyres looking to perhaps set a time good enough to be able to start on the set. Hamilton took top spot with a time of 1:37.344, with Ricciardo slotting into P2. Verstappen then bypassed both with a lap of 1:37.214. Vettel, meanwhile, was lodged in 10th, while Räikkönen was all the way down in P15 and telling his team the ultrasoft was “just too slow”.

In the final runs, both Ferrari drivers moved to hypersofts and Räikkönen jumped to the top of the order with a time of 1:37.194. Vettel caught traffic on his run and when Bottas improved to P3 after the flag, the Ferrari driver dropped to P6 behind Ricciardo.

Eliminated at the end of Q3 were Alonso in 11th place, followed by Sainz, Leclerc, his team-mate Ericsson and Gasly.

In the first runs of Q3 Hamilton staked an early claim to pole position with a superb lap of 1:36.015. Verstappen kept the championship leader in his sights by taking P2 with a time of 1:36.344 and Vettel slotted into P3, although the German was almost six tenths of a second behind title rival Hamilton.

And that was how the top six order stayed. Verstappen went quickest in the second sector on his final run but he later said he was forced to back off in the final sector as he experienced an engine issue.

Vettel, too, began well, running quickest in the first sector but the lap slipped away from the German and he had to settle for third place ahead of Bottas, Räikkönen and Ricciardo.

Seventh place went to Pérez, with the Mexican finishing ahead of Grosjean, Ocon and Hulkenberg.