SINGAPORE – Charles Leclerc’s impressive Formula One qualifying pace continued on Saturday at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, as the Monégasque driver earned his fifth pole of the season.

Leclerc lapped the 3.146-mile, 23-turn layout in 1:36.217 with his SF90-Ferrari to top qualifying for the third straight race, tying Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas for the most poles this year.

“It was quite a crazy lap,” Leclerc said. “The first one I compromised it — I started the lap too close to Lewis. I compromised the second sector, so then there was quite a bit of pressure to perform on the last lap.

“I gave it (my) all; there were quite a bit of mistakes. I lost the car a few times and I could see myself in the wall at least two or three times in the lap. But it felt amazing,” Leclerc added. “The car was great. Friday was a very difficult day for me, so to come here and do the pole position feels absolutely amazing.”

Joining Leclerc on the front row will be five-time and defending F-1 champion Lewis Hamilton, who turned a lap of 1:36.408 in Q3 to earn the second starting position, just edging out Leclerc’s teammate Sebastian Vettel.

Hamilton is a four-time winner in Singapore, tied with Vettel for the most in event history.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen starts fourth on Sunday, with the front two rows covered by less than six tenths of a second on the time sheets.

The second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas completed the top five.

Starting sixth will be Alexander Albon in the sister Red Bull entry, ahead of McLaren’s Carlos Sainz, the Renault pairing of Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg, and the second McLaren of Lando Norris.

The two Haas F1 Team cars struggled mightily on Saturday, both failing to make Q3. Kevin Magnussen grids up 14th and Romain Grosjean starts 18th for F-1’s only night race.