Hamilton snatches Malaysian GP pole

The soggy qualifying conditions for the Malaysian GP almost gave Sebastian Vettel his first pole with Ferrari. The four-time world champion failed just 7 hundredths behind the Mercedes de Lewis Hamilton. The Team wins his first row on a Grand Prix grid for two years (2nd place for Felipe Massa at Sepang). Lewis Hamilton takes his second pole in a row after Melbourne (Australia), the 40th of his career, despite the arrival of a downpour which soaked the track. The championship leader set the reference time (1'49"834) on his first flying lap, his teammate Nico Rosberg having slowed him down slightly during his second attempt.

Nico Rosberg was only able to secure 3rd place by getting ahead of Red Bull de Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat and the Toro Rosso de Max Verstappen which shines for its debut in the rain. The Williams were, however, more in difficulty under these conditions since Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas surround the Lotus Romain Grosjean qualified in 8th place. Marcus Ericsson managed to place a Sauber in the top ten.

The onset of rain limited the drivers to a single flying lap in Q2 and traffic trapped several competitors. The most disappointed is certainly Kimi Räikkönen who had shown good potential and who failed at the gates of the last session after setting his time in the wheels of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes. The Ferrari driver beat the Lotus of Pastor Maldonado and the Force India of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Pérez. Carlos Sainz Jr also suffered from the rain, only taking 15th place.

McLaren-Honda failed to place an MP4-30 in Q2. Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso failed behind the Sauber of Felipe Nasr who was expected to be at a better level after his top 5 in Melbourne (Australia). The 2009 world champion beat his Spanish teammate by a tenth. Manor F1 Team is seriously lacking in performance. Roberto Merhi failed 5 seconds behind the best times while Will Stevens did not even take to the track following a fuel pressure problem. The stewards will have to decide whether the British single-seaters are capable of competing in the race, the Spaniard having qualified beyond 107% of the time in Q1.