Vettel came out on top, giving Ferrari their first pole position since 2012 with a masterful lap around the floodlit Singaporean track.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton won the Belgian Grand Prix from pole position on Sunday to increase his lead over Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg to 28 points with eight races remaining.
Mexican Sergio Perez qualified second for Force India but will drop five places due to an unscheduled gearbox change after he crashed in final practice on the Baku street circuit.
Former FIA president Max Mosley has warned that Formula One risks serious difficulties unless it changes direction and cuts costs.
Lewis Hamilton has competed with Alonso, Raikkonen, Button, Rosberg, Schumacher and Vettel, champions all of them, and he has come out on top.
Nico Rosberg will have Formula One history in his sights in Spain this weekend, even if Dutch teenager Max Verstappen seizes his share of the limelight. The championship leader has won seven races in a row, including the last three of 2015, and can join fellow-German Michael Schumacher (2004) and Britain's Nigel Mansell (1992) as the only drivers to start a season with five successive victories. The chances of that happening looked remote this time last year, when Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton had won three of the first four and was heading for a third title, but Rosberg is now 43 points clear of the Briton. As 18-year-old Verstappen would agree, after his rapid promotion from Toro Rosso in a swap with demoted Russian Daniil Kvyat, Formula One moves fast off the track as well as on it. "I'm just enjoying the moment and the form I'm in, doing my best to keep it going and hoping I can carry it through to the end of the season," said Rosberg, 11/10 at bookmakers' William Hill with Hamilton at 5/4.
Lewis Hamilton played down the pressure of his Formula One title showdown with Nico Rosberg on Thursday by saying he had years of experience in dealing with it.
In an afternoon of heroes, Sebastian Vettel played the Bond villain at Silverstone, notes Raja Sen, who returns to Rediff.com as F1 columnist!
The British-based Marussia Formula One team reached the end of the road on Friday with some 200 staff told the company has ceased trading and they are being made redundant.
Formula One champions Red Bull recognised on Saturday they were well behind rivals in pre-season testing but dismissed reports that Sebastian Vettel had "thrown a hissy fit" about the situation.
Lewis Hamilton has had more success in Shanghai than any other Formula One driver, which makes Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix the ideal location for the triple world champion to end Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg's winning streak. While Rosberg has started the season with a perfect 50 points from two races, and a run of five successive victories dating back to last November, Hamilton is ready to turn the tables. The Briton has won four times in Shanghai and is on for three in a row after last season becoming the only driver to win the race in successive years. "It's not been a smooth start to the season for me, so to be in the championship position I'm in right now is actually pretty positive," said Hamilton, who lies second in the standings after a second and a third place. "Now we go to China for the next battle. It's a track that's been good to me over the years... so hopefully this race can be the turning point." Hamilton has not won since he took his third world championship in Austin, Texas, last October but the 31-year-old has started both races this season on pole position.
Fernando Alonso is leaving Ferrari at the end of the season because he wants a fresh environment and needs to be winning again, the Formula One team's ex-chairman Luca di Montezemolo said on Wednesday.
Rediff.com recaptures these and other exciting sporting moments from the week gone by....
My strongest emotion right now is deep gratitude to everybody who supported me to make that dream happen
The judge, during arguments, said it was "blindingly obvious" that "rules were broken by the bank" and that they had "gone against their own guidelines" in extending a loan to the business tycoon's now defunct Kingfisher Airlines.
No one appeared for Mallya and Kingfisher Airlines on Friday.
Kingfisher to be lager partner at ICC Champions Trophy to be played in UK.
The Mercedes driver's 55th career win was hard-fought and tense, however, with Ferrari's Vettel seizing the lead at the start and in the hunt all the way to the finish as the tyre strategies played out.
Mercedes opened their Formula One season by dominating practice at the Australian Grand Prix on Friday, with Nico Rosberg edging his world champion team mate Lewis Hamilton in both sessions at Albert Park.
'Renault Sport Racing managing director Cyril Abiteboul told reporters that Ricciardo could be the spark needed to ignite the team on track'
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso congratulated Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel on his fourth successive Formula One world title on Sunday but reserved judgement on where the German stood among the greats.
Alonso's last race victory came in 2013, and he hasn't been on the podium since 2014. For arguably one of the best drivers F1 has ever seen, this is the very definition of a legacy unfulfilled, says Chetan Narula.
Take a look at the top scorers of the English premier league!
Red Bull's Formula One championship leader Sebastian Vettel grabbed pole position at the Korean Grand Prix while closest title rival Fernando Alonso could qualify only fifth.
Hockenheim will host this year's German Grand Prix in July instead of alternating with the Nuerburgring, Formula One's commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone told Reuters on Thursday.
Germany's Nico Rosberg won the Italian Grand Prix for dominant Mercedes on Sunday to cut teammate Lewis Hamilton's Formula One world championship lead to two points with seven races remaining.
Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone has dismissed talk of a new chairman trying to 'rein him in' and says he plans to continue running the company as if he owned it.
Nico Rosberg beat Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton for the first time this season and cut the Formula One world champion's lead to 20 points with a commanding victory in the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday.
Nico Rosberg drew first blood for Mercedes in the new Formula One season with a dominant Australian Grand Prix victory on Sunday after pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton and world champion Sebastian Vettel retired with reliability problems.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Wednesday
The 30-year-old, who could clinch his third world title within a matter of weeks, told British reporters at the Russian Grand Prix that he would always owe an immense debt to his former McLaren boss Ron Dennis.
'It's old school to have such a concept as grid girls.'
Formula One has banned from next week's Singapore Grand Prix all radio communications that help improve the performance of the car or driver in a move that could add another twist to the title battle between Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton enjoyed an utterly dominant Italian Grand Prix victory on Sunday to take a 53-point lead in the Formula One championship after Mercedes team mate and closest rival Nico Rosberg retired with his engine in flames.
Triple world champion Lewis Hamilton produced a moment of Montreal magic on Saturday to put his Mercedes on pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix and equal Ayrton Senna's career haul of 65.
'Hopefully if I am performing at my best, then there will be issues -- because they (Ferrari) will be upset about it'
'For him to live the life that he is living and still keep up with such a performance, full credit to him'
If Fernando Alonso were to beat the odds and win the Indianapolis 500 on May 28, the double Formula One world champion will be one step away from the 'Triple Crown of Motorsport'.
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel put himself on pole position for a fourth successive Formula One title after lapping the Indian Grand Prix circuit faster than any driver ever before on Saturday.
The pole was Hamilton's eighth in nine races this season and the 46th of his career for the championship leader, who won at Silverstone last year and has a 10 point advantage over the German.
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