Lewis Hamilton claimed his sixth pole position of the season by the tiniest of margins today, beating team-mate Nico Rosberg to the top spot on the grid for the Singapore Grand Prix by seven thousandths of a second.

It was the tightest margin for pole position since Sebastian Vettel beat Fernando Alonso to the front of the grid for the 2010 German Grand Prix in Hockenheim by just 0.002s.

Third on the grid will be Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo who finished just under two tenths adrift of Hamilton’s pole time and five hundredths of a second clear of team-mate Sebastian Vettel in fourth place. Fernando Alonso will start from fifth for the fifth time in 14 races.

In the opening Q1 segment, Ferrari set the early pace, with Alonso (1:48.203) topping the times, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, who posted a lap of 1:48.583.

Rosberg had a nervous moment when he outbraked himself and was forced to take an escape road. His first clean lap of the session put him fourth, as Hamilton jumped to the top of the time sheet.

It had been predicted that Mercedes might attempt to make it through to Q2 on the prime tyre, but with the performance gap between the soft and the option supersoft at over two seconds, even they switched to the supersoft as the session wore on

The Red Bulls only emerged after 10 minutes, straightaway choosing the option tyres. Vettel’s first run wasn’t plain sailing, however, with the German coming across the slow Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat, which prompted the Red Bull man to gesticulate furiously at the Russian youngster.

At the end of the opening 18-minute session it was Kimi Raikkonen who emerged with the fastest lap, a time of 1:46.685. That was two tenths better than team-mate Alonso, and 0.136s clear of third-placed Hamilton.

Jenson Button was fourth for McLaren, with Valtteri Bottas fifth for Williams with a lap of 1:47.196. The Red Bulls eased through to Q2 with Vettel in ninth and Ricciardo in 10^th.

There were few surprises in the knockout zone. Eliminated, in order, were Sauber’s Adrian Sutil, Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado, Marussia’s Jules, Caterham’s Kamui Kobayashi, the second Marussia of Max Chilton andthe second Caterham of Marcus Ericsson. Of some note, however, was the lap of Bianchi. The Marussia driver might not have made it through to Q2, but his lap of 1:49.440 was a full second quicker than that of his team-mate and those of his Caterham rivals.

When Q2 got underway, Raikkonen again jumped to the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:46.359. That was soon eclipsed by Alonso, who went 0.031s than his team-mate.

Rosberg’s first lap left him third, two tenths down on the Ferraris, but then Hamilton pushed Mercedes to the top of the pile with a lap four hundredths of a second clear of Alonso’s. With the final runs in the offing, the order at the top was Hamilton followed by Alonso, Raikkonen and Ricciardo.

Those three didn’t change order but Rosberg’s final lap of the session saw him steal P1. Fifth place went to Massa, followed by the twin Red Bulls. Bottas finished eighth, with Kevin Magnussen putting in an excellent final lap to claim ninth.

Daniil Kvyat took the last place in Q3, beating Jenson Button to the place in the final shootout but just under two hundredths of a second.

Also eliminated was Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne who finished in 11^th place, just six hundredths of a second off team-mate Kvyat’s time. Vergne was followed by Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg, Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez, the second Force India of Sergio Perez and Lotus’ Romain Grosjean.

After the first runs in Q3 it was Massa who sat at the top of the list, with a time of 1:46.007. The Williams driver was followed by Ricciardo, six hundredths back, and Alonso, who was a tenth down on his former team-mate. Raikkonen was fourth ahead of Bottas, while Hamilton was the fastest of the Mercedes, with a time of 1:46.230. Rosberg was seventh, five hundredths down on his team-mate.

Midway through his final run, disaster struck for Raikkonen. The Finn reported that he had no power and was forced to return to the pits where he abandoned the session.

Ricciardo was the first to make his move on pole and he immediately ousted Massa with a lap of 1:45.854. Rosberg was the next up, the German knocking Ricciardo off with his fastest lap of 1:45.688.

Hamilton, though, had still to cross the line and despite a lock-up in turn one at the start of his lap, he continued to improve throughout and when he crossed the line he was ahead by an incredibly fine margin. Rosberg’s response? A barked “damn it” down the radio to his pit wall.

Afterwards, the title leader said that he was still happy with second place and that it was a good platform, the fact is that four from six races here have been won from pole and Hamilton will very much go into tomorrow’s battle with the upper hand.

2014 Singapore Grand Prix – Qualifying

1 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:46.921 1:46.287 1:45.681 17
2 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1:47.244 1:45.825 1:45.688 19
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull Racing 1:47.488 1:46.493 1:45.854 12
4 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull Racing 1:47.476 1:46.586 1:45.902 15
5 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1:46.889 1:46.328 1:45.907 16
6 Felipe Massa Williams 1:47.615 1:46.472 1:46.000 20
7 Kimi Räikkönen Ferrari 1:46.685 1:46.359 1:46.170 14
8 Valtteri Bottas Williams 1:47.196 1:46.622 1:46.187 18
9 Kevin Magnussen McLaren 1:47.976 1:46.700 1:46.250 18
10 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:47.656 1:46.926 1:47.362 21
11 Jenson Button McLaren 1:47.161 1:46.943 12
12 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1:47.407 1:46.989 14
13 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1:47.370 1:47.308 13
14 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber 1:47.970 1:47.333 9
15 Sergio Perez Force India 1:48.143 1:47.575 13
16 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1:47.862 1:47.812 14
17 Adrian Sutil Sauber 1:48.324 6
18 Pastor Maldonado Lotus 1:49.063 8
19 Jules Bianchi Marussia 1:49.440 7
20 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham 1:50.405 8
21 Max Chilton Marussia 1:50.473 7
22 Marcus Ericsson Caterham 1:52.287 5

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