Singapore: Lewis Hamilton blamed the "weird" performance of his tyres on Saturday as his run of seven straight pole positions came crashing to a halt at the Singapore Grand Prix.

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The Mercedes championship leader was never in the running in qualifying as he came in fifth, 1.4 seconds slower than pole-sitter Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari.

Afterwards Hamilton, who missed out on equalling Ayrton Senna`s record of eight consecutive poles, said his tyres weren`t performing as expected -- but couldn`t explain why.

"It`s so weird: you heat them up the same as everyone else, you do your warm-up lap the same as everyone else," he told Sky Sports.

"Then you finish your lap, which you think will be okay grip and then you see someone else a second up the road. So it`s very strange."

Hamilton also admitted that Mercedes could struggle in Sunday`s race, with his team-mate Nico Rosberg starting alongside him on the grid in sixth.

"The goal`s to still win the race, but it`s very hard to overtake here and the others, particularly the Red Bulls, were incredibly quick through the long runs," Hamilton said.

"It is what it is. We`ll fight as hard as we can but I doubt we`ll find something between now and tomorrow. But if we do, great."