Ferrari's Charles Leclerc has seized his third pole position in a row ahead of Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix, but Renault's Australian driver Daniel Ricciardo has been demoted to the back of the field after a technical breach.
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The 21-year-old Leclerc, who started the last two races in Belgium and Italy from the front and went on to win both races, lit up the timing screens with a time of one minute, 36.217 seconds on Saturday.
Mercedes' world champion Lewis Hamilton was 0.191 seconds slower, with Monegasque Leclerc's Ferrari teammate Sebastian Vettel qualifying third after aborting his final lap and Red Bull's Max Verstappen fourth.
But Ricciardo, who had qualified in eighth place, one place ahead of teammate Nico Hulkenberg, later saw his results erased after stewards ruled his car's energy recovery system had deployed too much power in the Q1 segment of qualifying.
Renault argued that the excess was very small and offered no measurable benefit but stewards said that was no defence under the rules.
The demotion meant Alfa Romeo's Antonio Giovinazzi, who qualified 12th, will line up 10th since 11th-placed Sergio Perez has a five-place grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change to his Racing Point.
Ferrari, who have struggled around twisty circuits, had not been the favourites going into the weekend but Leclerc marked them out as contenders after setting the pace in the final practice session.
"We came here knowing that it would be a difficult track for us, but the team has done an amazing job to bring the package we needed," he added once out of the car," Leclerc said.
The race has been won from pole eight times out of 11 editions.
Hamilton, last year's race winner and the runaway championship leader with a 63-point advantage over team mate Valtteri Bottas, said he was happy to be on the front row.
Vettel, who came into the weekend eclipsed by Leclerc, appeared to have pulled out some of the old magic with provisional pole but pulled into the pits after errors on his final lap.
Saturday was the seventh successive time the four-times world champion, without a win for more than a year, had been outqualified by Leclerc.
Dutch 21-year-old Verstappen will still fancy his chances with Red Bull finishing second in Singapore for the last five years.
Bottas, who has never started the race in the top three, qualified fifth. Thai rookie Alexander Albon, in only his third start for Red Bull after moving up from Toro Rosso, lines up sixth in what is almost a home race.
Australian Associated Press
