Mercedes driver take second consecutive pole position ahead of Vettel and Rosberg.
Lewis Hamilton edged a resurgent Sebastian Vettel to claim pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix, the Mercedes driver taking his second pole in a row by just five hundredths of a second in a session defined by the wet conditions.
Nico Rosberg finished third in the second Mercedes. The German seemed to struggle on full wet tyres in the difficult conditions in Q3 but delivered a lap of 2:00.050, which was good enough to push Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso out to fourth.
“I’m really happy, firstly with the job the team has done and just generally how well we have done throughout the weekend,” said Hamilton after claiming his 33rd career pole with a lap of 1:59.431.
“Today was just incredible, with how much it rained before qualifying and then during the session it was very, very tricky out there for everyone,” he added. Particularly at the end it was almost impossible to see anything. During my last lap I just couldn’t see a thing behind [Nico] Hulkenberg. I couldn’t see where the track went, didn’t know where the corners were, when to brake. These guys [Vettel and Red Bull Racing] are definitely a little bit too close, so happy to be here.”
The hour-long session was delayed by 50-minutes due to torrential rain before the 4pm local start and when Q1 eventually got underway on a damp track, most teams opted for the intermediate tyre.
With more on its way a number of teams called for ‘banker’ laps from their drivers but five minutes into the 18-minute session that looked like being problematic for world champion Sebastian Vettel, who was called back to the garage to investigate a problem with the RB10’s energy store.
“The heartbeat was definitely rising very quickly when we realised there was an issue,” said Vettel afterwards. “But we restarted the car, which seemed to solve the problem. After that it was fine, so it was good to go out and get another feel for the car, in the wet, with the conditions.”
It was left to Rosberg to top the session with a time of 1:57.183, two hundredths ahead of Hamilton. Vettel finished four tenths down on the Mercedes.
The opening segment was red-flagged with just 35 seconds remaining when Caterham’s Marcus Ericsson spun off into the barriers and slid back on track, almost into the path of Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez.
The result was that out went 17th-placed Maldonado, Force India’s Adrian Sutil, the Marussias of Jules Bianchi (P19) and Max Chilton (P21) and the Caterham’s of Kamui Kobayashi and Ericsson, who finished 20th and 22nd respectively.
The red flag reappeared within minutes of the start of Q2, Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat sliding into the side of Alonso’s Ferrari.
The clash left the Spaniard’s F14 T with damage to the front left suspension but a lightning-quick fix by the Ferrari crew saw the Spaniard back on track just two minutes after the restart and Alonso was soon up to sixth with his first flying lap, behind leader Hamilton, Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo, Rosberg and Nico Hulkenberg.
Further back, a clutch of drivers went into the final two minutes with a good chance of claiming a top 10 spot, Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniil Kvyat and Williams’ Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa looking well placed to make the move.
In the end it was only Vergne who claimed a place in the top-10 shootout, the Frenchman posting a lap of 2:02.096, which was good enough to claim 10th place, ahead to Kvyat, who was bumped to 11th. The Russian was also to be investigated after qualifying for his part in the early accident with Alonso.
At the top of the Q2 list were Hamilton and Vettel, the Mercedes man lapping in 1:59.041, over three tenths quicker than the Red Bull man. Rosberg was third, ahead of Ricciardo, who was also to be investigated for a possible Q2 block on Lotus’ Romain Grosjean.
That left the top 10 shootout. With Alonso an impressive fourth at the end, fifth spot went to Ricciardo. Behind him Kimi Raikonen took sixth in the second Ferrari, ahead of and Nico Hulkenberg, also in impressive form for Force India. Kevin Magnussen was eighth for McLaren, ahead of Vergne and the final top-10 place was taken by Jenson Button in the second McLaren.
1. Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m59.431s2. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m59.486s +0.055s3. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 2m00.050s +0.619s4. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 2m00.175s +0.744s5. Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 2m00.541s +1.110s6. Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 2m01.218s +1.787s7. Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 2m01.712s +2.281s8. Kevin Magnussen McLaren-Mercedes 2m02.213s +2.782s9. Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso-Renault 2m03.078s +3.647s10 Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 2m04.053s +4.622s
Q2 c11 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Renault 2m02.351s +3.310s12 Esteban Gutierrez Sauber-Ferrari 2m02.369s +3.328s13 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 2m02.460s +3.419s14 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 2m02.511s +3.470s15 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 2m02.756s +3.715s16 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Renault 2m02.885s +3.844s
Q117 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Renault 2m02.074s +4.891s18 Adrian Sutil Sauber-Ferrari 2m02.131s +4.948s19 Jules Bianchi Marussia-Ferrari 2m02.702s +5.519s20 Kamui Kobayashi Caterham-Renault 2m03.595s +6.412s21 Max Chilton Marussia-Ferrari 2m04.388s +7.205s22 Marcus Ericsson Caterham-Renault 2m04.407s +7.224s
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