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Ferrari's Charles Leclerc takes third straight pole at Singapore GP

SINGAPORE — Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc claimed a third straight Formula One pole position on Saturday after outpacing championship leader Lewis Hamilton in qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix. Leclerc clocked a lap of 1 minute, 36.217 seconds at the 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) Marina Bay street circuit, beating Hamilton by 0.191 seconds. Leclerc's teammate Sebastian Vettel was third. "If you look at the lap, it was a good lap, but there were some moments that I lost control," Leclerc said. "We brought some new bits that worked properly, which was good to see. I had a very tough Friday and didn't feel comfortable in the car, but we worked hard and it paid off." Leclerc has won the previous two races. After his first-ever F1 victory in Spa at the Belgian GP, the 21-year-old Leclerc became the first Ferrari driver to win the Italian GP since Fernando Alonso in 2010. Hamilton holds a 63-point lead over Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas with seven races remaining. "I don't know where Ferrari picked up their pace, it's not usually one of their circuits," Hamilton said. "But they did a great job, Charles did some great laps. Hopefully we can be in the mix with them tomorrow. I think we can be aggressive." While Hamilton already has eight wins this season, his last came at the Hungarian GP in early August. Pole position in Singapore is crucial as its one of the hardest tracks for overtaking in F1. The driver leading the field has won eight times in the past 11 years. Hamilton has won in Singapore the past two years. Another victory in Sunday's night race would move the Briton a step closer to his third straight championship and sixth overall, one shy of Michael Schumacher's record of seven titles. Vettel, whose contract ends in 2020, is on a 13-month winless streak. His last victory was at the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix. Vettel and Hamilton are the only two drivers on the grid with victories at Singapore — with four wins each. Red Bull's Max Verstappen was fourth, almost four-tenths behind Vettel. Bottas was fifth for Mercedes ahead of Red Bull's Alex Albon. Carlos Sainz Jr. took seventh place for McLaren in front of the Renault of Daniel Ricciardo. Nico Hulkenberg was ninth in the second Renault with McLaren's Lando Norris rounding out the top 10. Motorsports Ferrari Lewis Hamilton Sebastian Vettel singapore grand prix charles leclerc

Valtteri Bottas on pole for Formula One's 1,000th race

Valtteri Bottas will start Formula One's 1,000th world championship race from pole position after leading Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton in a front row lockout at the Chinese Grand Prix on Saturday. Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel qualified third, ahead of 21-year-old Monegasque team mate Charles Leclerc who was unable to repeat his Bahrain Grand Prix pole of two weeks ago. Bottas, who won the season opener in Australia and leads defending champion Hamilton by one point in the standings, was the third different driver to take pole this season in three races. "The lap was OK, not completely how I wanted. Luckily it was good enough for pole," smiled the Finn, who pipped Hamilton by 0.023 seconds after setting a best time of one minute 31.547. "Lewis also managed to improve a lot during the qualifying and it was super-close." The pole was a first for Bottas since Russia last September and the seventh of his career. It was also his first in China where Mercedes have won five of the last seven races. Hamilton sounded happy just to be on the front row, despite six previous poles in Shanghai, after looking out of sorts in practice. "I didn't give up, I kept pushing right to the end. Big congratulations to Valtteri, he's been stellar all weekend and I've been struggling and fighting the car," said the Briton. "To be as close as we are at the end is fantastic. An incredible result for the team. There was a little bit more time left on the table there but that's cool, I'll try and get it tomorrow," added Hamilton. UNHAPPY VERSTAPPEN Ferrari had arrived in China as favorites after showing their speed in Bahrain, particularly on the straights, with Leclerc on pole and leading until a loss of engine power in the closing laps. While unable to match the quick-cornering Mercedes cars for overall pace in Shanghai, Vettel hoped to be closer on Sunday thanks to the track's main straight being more than a kilometer long. "I think there was maybe a little bit more but overall not enough to beat these guys today," said the 31-year-old German, a four times world champion. "If we get close we could have an advantage in a straight line." The top 10 positions went two-by-two in team order, with Red Bull's Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly fifth and sixth and ahead of the Renault pair of Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg – the Australian just 0.004 ahead of the German.

Ferrari worth over $11 billion, says Marchionne ahead of IPO

We all know that cars from Ferrari sell for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars. But how much is Ferrari worth as a company? At least ten billion, according to its chairman. Speaking at the launch of the revised Fiat 500 in Turin on Friday, Fiat Chrysler CEO and Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne said he expected the vaunted Maranello-based supercar manufacturer and racing team to be valued at over 10 billion euros, or about $11 billion at current exchange rates. As Bloomberg points out, that would make Ferrari alone account for some 60 percent of the value of its parent company Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, which is currently valued at over 16 billion euros. That may seem like an aggressive estimate, but we won't have to take Marchionne at his word for long. After having floated an Initial Public Offering on the New York Stock Exchange last year, Fiat Chrysler is preparing to do the same with its Ferrari unit as soon as October. FCA will not, of course, be selling off all of its shares. The projected scheme would have ten percent (worth about one billion by Marchionne's estimates) of Ferrari's shares floated on the NYSE. Another 10 percent is expected to remain in the hands of founder Enzo's son (and company vice chairman) Piero Ferrari's hands. The remaining 80 percent is slated to be distributed among Fiat Chrysler's existing stakeholders.