Vettel not focused on Hamilton after ‘amazing’ pole

Sebastian Vettel says he is unconcerned by Lewis Hamilton's starting position after securing an "amazing" pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix.

Having appeared on the back foot compared to Red Bull throughout the practice sessions at the Marina Bay circuit, Vettel delivered two outstanding laps in Q3 to beat Max Verstappen to pole by over 0.3s. With Daniel Ricciardo and Kimi Raikkonen filling row two, championship leader Hamilton will start from fifth place but Vettel is not paying attention to the Mercedes driver's position.

"I mean, we have a long race and there are a lot of things that can happen," Vettel said. "Certainly here grid position here is king or crucial, but it's still a long race. Our car was good this evening and that's promising for tomorrow. Yesterday we had a scrappy session and I lost the car, I had damage, so the runs after that were compromised.

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"The feeling was there, I knew that the car has got it but we just needed to get it out and that's what we managed to do tonight. I'm confident for tomorrow and for the others... Max is next to me so first of all I'm racing him and then Daniel and so on and so forth, so not too bothered where other people are. There's a long race ahead and a lot of things we need to get right ourselves."

Vettel himself was caught by surprise at how good his qualifying laps were after struggling during the practice sessions.

"I don't know [where I found that time]. I struggled also this afternoon. I shouted as loud as [the crowd] – it was unbelievable. I'm still full of adrenaline so maybe whatever I say doesn't make any sense but I love this track. The car was tricky but it came alive and it got better and better as the night progressed, so really happy we got it done.

"I think I need to calm down first. I'm very, very happy. That was amazing. It's an amazing track if you feel the car is coming alive and you can do what you want to. I knew we had it in us, it was a bit of a struggle to get there but now I'm just happy."