Sebastian Vettel says he is "surprised" to have taken pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix by such a big𝓀 margin.

Vettel looked dominant throughout qualifying♍, building on the fantastic pace shown in final practice, to blitz his rivals.

In the end both his runs in top-ten shꦅootout would have been good enough to give him his first pole with Ferrari - and Ferraris first for 61 races - but still he did improve on his final lap.

Indeed he was the only man to break the 1m 44s bracket, posting a 1m 43.885s lap, to leav🙈e him 0.543s up on former Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.

"A proper one I would♑ say. Unbelievable, I🅰 know it is only Saturday and obviously the main job is coming tomorrow but I had to enjoy the moment when I heard that we had made it. It was looking pretty good right from the off-set of qualifying and actually from this morning [FP3] to be fair. And then it was just... the car was fantastic to drive - it just got better through qualifying," Vettel said.

"We got the maximum today. I am surprised by the margin but I just think it came together. I really had a near perfect lap at the e🤡nd. I was very happy with the laps I had today, especially the last one.

"Around here it i💮s such a long tricky lap and so easy to just go in a little bit too deep or in too far and push it a little bit too much. It just seemed to come in the end and I was very happy that I made it to the finish line because it felt like a good lap and it was🅷 a good lap in the end.

"Very happy."

Meanwhile, Vettel added that he thought Mercedes were "sandbagging" in practice when they were off the pace, although as it turned ou🐟t fifth and sixth was a good as they could do.

"I don't know [why they are not as strong as usual], it's a surprise. I thought they were sandbagg💮ing yesterday and also this morning because there is no doubt they have the strongest package," he continued.

"They have a very good car, a very good power unit, which we know, and usually that puts them up there very hi🦄gh and makes them difficult to beat. I don't know, they must have some issues and not feeling comfortable at all with their degradation, I think. I wouldn't rule them out for tomorrow. It's not the easiest circuit to overtake, but if you have the pace you can close in."