Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg took pole position for his 200th Formula One race after a stunning qualifying lap around Singapore’s Marina Bay street circuit yesterday.
 The German’s best lap of one minute 42.584 seconds left him perfectly placed to retake the championship lead from British teammate Lewis Hamilton under the floodlights today.
 Rosberg hailed the lap as one of the best of his career and, by securing his 29th pole position at a circuit that offers minimal overtaking opportunities, the 31-year-old will be hopeful of securing his eighth victory of the season.
 “I am definitely happy with that one. It was one of my top three laps ever,” said Rosberg, who sits two points behind Hamilton.
 Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo split the Mercedes pair to claim second spot in 1:43.115, the Australian edging out triple world champion Hamilton, a two-time winner in Singapore who will start in third place. “It wasn’t clear in qualifying how we would stack up against Red Bull, so I really had to give it everything and pull it out of the bag, which is cool,” Rosberg added of his pole-setting lap.
 Ricciardo is still searching for his first win of the season after he was denied victory by a botched pit-stop in Monaco, and with Singapore providing the most similar circuit to Monte Carlo, the Australian can hope to go one better today.
 Dutch teenager Max Verstappen, who had a surprise encounter with a monitor lizard in practice, will start alongside Hamilton after setting the fourth fastest time for Red Bull. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top five.
 Last year’s winner Sebastian Vettel will start from the back of the grid, the German complaining over the radio of an anti-rollbar issue in the first qualifying session with his Ferrari team unable to repair the car in time to set a fast lap.
 Vettel felt he was kept out on the track too long by his team, shouting “That was stupid. We’re losing time” over the radio as he entered the pitlane after lapping slowest of the 22 drivers.
 Behind Raikkonen, the Toro Rosso pair of Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat with Nico Hulkenberg (Force India), Fernando Alonso (McLaren) and Sergio Perez (Force India) completed the top 10 on the starting grid.
Starting Grid
1. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes
2. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Red Bull
3. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes
4. Max Verstappen (Netherlands) Red Bull
5. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari
6. Carlos Sainz Jr (Spain) Toro Rosso
7. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) Toro Rosso
8. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Force India
9. Fernando Alonso (Spain) McLaren
10. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Force India
11. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Williams
12. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams
13. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren
14. Esteban Gutierrez (Mexico) Haas
15. Romain Grosjean (France) Haas
16. Marcus Ericsson (Sweden) Sauber
17. Kevin Magnussen (Denmark) Renault
18. Felipe Nasr (Brazil) Sauber
19. Jolyon Palmer (Britain) Renault
20. Pascal Wehrlein (Germany) Manor
21. Esteban Ocon (France) Manor
22. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Ferrari