Lewis Hamilton was left surprised by the pace title rival Sebastian Vettel found to claim pole position in Singapore, saying fifth was all he could manage to extract from his Mercedes.
As expected, Mercedes struggled to replicate its usual performance levels throughout qualifying in Singapore, which started with Red Bull seemingly in control. In Q3, Vettel snatched the initiative from the Red Bull drivers with two stunning laps, meaning three cars will start between the lead Ferrari and Hamilton.
Hamilton felt happy he had maximised his own effort -- which left him less than 0.1s shy of Kimi Raikkonen -- but admitted Mercedes had doubted Ferrari had the pace to snatch pole.