Lewis Hamilton snatched pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix by the smallest of margins from arch rival Nico Rosberg in a highly competitive qualifying session at the Marina Bay circuit.

The Brit, who was quickest in Friday free practice, saved his best until his final lap as he pipped his title rival Mercedes team-mate by just seven thousandths of a second to secure pole.

The session proved to be one of the closest fought of the season with just a little over half a second separating the top nine.

Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo held provisional pole for matter of seconds in the session but in the end he settled for third ahead of his reigning world champion team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

Ferrari presented themselves as genuine contenders to secure the first non Mercedes powered pole of the season. Fernando Alonso topped the final free practice session while Kimi Raikkonen set the pace in Q2.

However, Alonso’s charge petered out leaving him fifth on the grid while a mechanical problem left Raikkonen in seventh.

Williams’ Felipe Massa set the pace for the majority of Q3 but slipped down the order to end the session in sixth.

Team-mate Valtteri Bottas will start from eighth ahead of McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen, who out-qualified his more experienced team-mate Jenson Button once again.

Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat rounded out the top 10.

The sister McLaren of Button missed out of the top 10 shootout for the fifth time this season as he could only muster a time good enough for 11th on the grid.

Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne, who is driving for his future in the sport, secured 12th spot ahead Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez.

Meanwhile, Sergio Perez and Lotus’ Romain Grosjean will share the eighth row on the grid. The latter was clearly unhappy with the pace of his E22 after choosing to vent his anger regarding the lack of power from his Renault engine over the radio.

Adrian Sutil will start from 17th on the grid having failed to progress from Q1 just ahead of Lotus’ Pastor Maldonado.

Jules Bianchi managed to extract the most from his Marussia to finish more than a second quicker than his team-mate Max Chilton and the two Caterhams.

Singapore Grand Prix Qualifying Results