Formula 1
Nico Rosberg takes pole under the lights in Singapore
Formula 1

Nico Rosberg takes pole under the lights in Singapore

Published Sep. 17, 2016 10:19 a.m. ET

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg will start on pole position for Sunday's Singapore GP at the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore, after setting a 1:42.584 during the final qualifying session on Saturday.

This is Rosberg's seventh pole in 15 races this season and comes on the weekend of his 200th career F1 start.

Rosberg set his pole lap during the first set of runs in Q3, while Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton was right behind him in second.

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The drivers went back out on track in the closing moments for a second set of runs but very few were able to improve, although Red Bull Racing's Daniel Ricciardo was able to jump up into second position, pushing Hamilton back onto the second row of the grid with Ricciardo's teammate Max Verstappen.

The best Ferrari could manage was fifth with Kimi Raikkonen, while Sebastian Vettel had a mechanical failure in Q1 that saw him unable to set a competitive time. Vettel, having won here last year, will start from the rear of the field on Sunday.

Vettel wasn't the only one who hit trouble, with McLaren driver Jenson Button and Hass driver Romain Grosjean both getting into the barriers to bring out the yellow flags at the end of Q2.

Controversially, Force India's Sergio Perez still set his fastest time under the yellow flags at the end of Q2, and was able to advance to the final qualifying session while Williams driver Valtteri Bottas was knocked out and will start 11th. Joining Bottas on row six will be his teammate Felipe Massa.

UPDATE: Sergio Perez has been handed an eight-place penalty for failing to slow for the yellow flags and passing under yellow.

Updated starting grid:

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