Motor racing-Hamilton saves his best for last to deny Rosberg

By John O'Brien SINGAPORE, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Lewis Hamilton provided yet more evidence that precision timing is vital for success in Formula One when the Briton performed a perfect piece of brinkmanship to seize pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix on Saturday. Looking to secure a front-row position to stand any chance of staying in touch with championship-leading Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg, a big mistake on his final qualifying lap was the last thing Hamilton would have wanted with time running out. The Briton locked up into Turn One and lost vital fractions of a second to his pole-chasing rivals but pushed his car to the limit, brushing barriers and braking late to save his best for last as he edged out Rosberg by 0.007 seconds. "As a driver through the weekend, you plan to have your last lap as your fastest lap because that's when the track is at its best," Hamilton said after securing his sixth pole of the season and 37th of his career. "That's when you've got the configurations as close to perfect, that's the lap you want to do it on. I just didn't have a clean lap through the whole of qualifying but the last one was the cleanest." Hamilton trails Rosberg by 22 points with six races remaining and will be confident of closing the gap further if he can get to the first corner ahead of his team mate on a circuit where overtaking is notoriously difficult. LOST TIME Yet even to be in a position to do just that, Hamilton had to fight back from near disaster following his mishap in the final minutes of qualifying. "I locked up into Turn One and missed the apex so I was down around two tenths of a second by the time I got to Turn Five," he added. "At that point, I was thinking it would be impossible to regain that but on the previous lap there were a few corners where I lost out as well so I fixed those and got back the time." Rosberg was left to rue the narrow margin of his failure but is well aware that a lot could still happen on Sunday, especially if the heavens open as they did just 30 minutes after qualifying ended. "When I look back, 7000ths of a second is nothing," the German said. "That's the way it is. Lewis did a good job but it's a long race ahead so we'll see. "It's going to be a tough race in terms of tyres. They have a lot of degradation but I am confident because I had some really nice runs on Friday, so I am well prepared for the race and feeling good about it." (Editing by Toby Davis)