Vettel takes pole in rain in Malaysia

Red Bull Racing seemed to be in difficulty during the first qualifying sessions at Sepang, but the Milton Keynes team managed to qualify its two drivers for Q3 before the rain set in. Sebastian Vettel was once again the fastest after narrowly qualifying at the end of Q1. The three-time world champion set a time of 1'49"674 at the end of Q3 and is nine tenths ahead of his closest pursuer Felipe Massa. The Sao Paulista manages for the second time in a row to beat his teammate Fernando Alonso which ranks third alongside Lewis Hamilton.

Mercedes AMG F1 was once again placed at the forefront as Nico Rosberg moved up to sixth place behind Mark Webber who had chosen to keep his set of intermediate tires while his teammate had gone to the pits to have fresh rubber. Lotus F1 Team performs disappointing qualifying after its very good weekend in Melbourne. The Finn was very competitive in the dry but was more behind on the wet Sepang track and ultimately only took seventh place. The winner of the Australian Grand Prix is ​​also penalized three places on the grid for having slowed down Nico Rosberg during the session. Romain Grosjean failed at the gates of Q3 after being trapped by the arrival of rain. 

McLaren on the other hand took advantage of the rainy conditions for Jenson Button to position himself in seventh place ahead of Adrian Sutil and Sergio Pérez. The Force India driver could, on the contrary, regret the arrival of the rain after showing off in the dry. Nico Hulkenberg ranks 12th ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, Esteban Gutiérrez and Paul di Resta. Pastor Maldonado will start from 16th place ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne who failed at the gates of Q2 after being slowed down by a competitor. Valtteri Bottas still missing Q2 by only taking 18th position ahead of Jules Bianchi and Charles Pic. Max Chilton and Giedo van der Garde will start from the back row.

The start of the Malaysian Grand Prix will be given tomorrow at 16 p.m. (9 a.m. in France).