Vettel: “I feared losing pole”

Sebastian Vettel will start from pole position at the Singapore GP. The German admitted that he feared losing pole when he and the team decided not to do another run, confident of his time. Nico Rosberg and Romain Grosjean, however, came very close by taking advantage of the track which became faster in the final moments of the session.

“Here we race in the evening and even though it hasn't been on the calendar for many decades it almost feels like a classic GP” declared Vettel. “It's a very beautiful place, the circuit is a great challenge for all of us because it is very long, there are many corners and it is very difficult to maintain concentration for the entire lap”.

“Tomorrow the race will be very long, usually it is the longest ever with a duration of two hours. A race that you hate and love at the same time. And obviously if you manage to do the right lap in qualifying it's a fantastic feeling and I think that's why I and the other drivers love racing here."

Fernando Alonso only seventh is another good news for Vettel: “Obviously we don't look at what the others do, at least not me. I think the race is very long as I already mentioned, the Ferraris struggled a bit in qualifying in the last few races but they have an excellent pace in the race and Fernando ended up on the podium in the last few races so I'm sure they will recover. Obviously what happened to us today certainly doesn't hurt us but first of all we have to look at ourselves and what we can do in the race and I'm confident."

After his first run Vettel decided to save a set of tires but Nico Rosberg and Romain Grosjean were very close. Vettel admitted that he feared losing pole: “It was a bad feeling because I was in the pits with two minutes left and all I could do was watch the others busy with their final attempts. I looked at the times of the various sectors very carefully. Mark got the best split in the first stretch and Romain got it in the second but luckily my last stretch was competitive enough to stay in front. Nico got very close. In the end it was a good feeling because it could have gone wrong. Today the Mercedes are very close. We knew we had a safety buffer and that's why we decided not to shoot again. We didn't know how much the track would improve, plus having another go gives you a better feel for the tires and the track. We knew the lap was good and in the end it was."