Sebastian Vettel transferred his blistering lead up pace to land pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix.

The German trumped his rivals to take the prime starting spot for the fifth time this year.

Vettel parked up in the Red Bull garage with three minutes remaining in the final qualifying segment, rendering himself vulnerable to the challengers headed by Nico Rosberg.

However Mercedes pilot Rosberg found himself falling just .091s short of Vettel’s mark to claim second spot ahead of Lotus driver Romain Grosjean.

Mark Webber will occupy fourth position beside Grosjean with Lewis Hamilton taking fifth.

There was concern shown in the Lotus camp over the fitness of departing driver Kimi Raikkonen who has been stricken with severe back pain.

Raikkonen managed to carry out his qualifying duties and will start from 13th with Lotus ready to roll in its test driver Davide Valsecchi as an emergency. The injury is a result of a 2001 testing shunt in with Sauber at Magny-Cours.

The Finn is confident of taking his place on the grid later tonight.

Daniel Ricciardo made it through to Q3 and will start from ninth ahead of Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez who did not set a time in the final top 10 run-off.

Ferrari will occupy positions six and seven after disappointing pace shown by Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso who were both more than a second off the pole time.

Jenson Button will start from eighth in the McLaren.

See below for the qualifying results