Vettel pips Hamilton to Malaysian pole

F1 Grand Prix, GP Malaysia, Sepang International Circuit

Sebastian Vettel has shown how he has become world champion by setting an impressive final laptime to top Hamilton to pole position. McLaren was extremely close to Red Bull's pace, an impressive feat that bodes well for the rest of the season.

The Malaysian GP qualifying session takes place under cloudy skies, but the session is still expected to be dry. Tonio Liuzzi is the first to take the track, followed by Di Resta in his Force India.

It cetainly is interesting to know that Mark Webber topped the Friday sessions while Lewis Hamilton topped FP3. Sebastian Vettel hasn't been so much on form so far this weekend, especially not compared to the pace he showed at Melbourne just 2 weeks ago.

7 minutes into the session during which more than ten cars were on track, Sebastian Buemi's Toro Rosso felt just a little bit too hot and threw away the bodywork on he left sidepod. It appears the cover wasn't firmly bolted and just flew off the car.

The session is restarted minutes later after the marshalls cleared up the track. Both Lotus cars got on with it as neither of them set a competitive laptime before the break. Both their laps turn out quite good, with Trulli, the slowest of the two being more than a second faster than the quickest Virgin car.

3 minutes from the end of Q1, Massa tops the timesheets, ahead of Alonso. The Ferraris did however run on the option tyres which is supposedly more than a second a lap quicker than the primes. Red Bull racing meanwhile is rather low on the rankings at that time, but the bulls are running on the slower prime tyre, gambling they could just get through without using a set of softs.

At Mercedes GP the situation appeared different as the team sent out both its drivers out on the softer tyres as they realised they wouldn't make it to Q2 without doing so. Williams were already doing so but failed to make a big impression. Barrichello just make it through, while his teammate is out. Along with him are Kovalainen, Trulli, Glock, D'Ambrosio, Liuzzi and Karthikeyan.

Contrary to Melbourne, HRT managed to stay within the 107% time and both their cars will therefore be able to compete in tomorrow's Grand Prix, despite still being abount 6 seconds slower than the top time.

In Q2 all cars start on options as it is obvious no one will be able to set a competitive time on the primes during qualifying.

7 minutes into the session, the real pace of the top teams is starting to show. Jenson Button at that moment is quickest with a 1:35.569, faster than anything so far this weekend. He is a considerable 4 tenths ahead of Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull, another tenth on Webber who is nearly a full second ahead of Massa, the first of the Ferraris.

Lotus Renault meanwhile is putting in only a single lap and with 3 minutes to go end up in 4th and 5th place with Vitaly Petrov being almost 2 tenths quicker than Nick Heidfeld.

At the end of the session, Hamilton put in the second fastest time while Nico Rosberg is 6th fastest. With that improvement he effectively bumped out Michael Schumacher out of qualifying. The German will start from 11th place. Behind him on the grid will be Buemi, Alguersuari, Di Resta, Barrichello, Perez and Sutil.

In Q3 the McLaren are first to set their first attempts, with Hamilton quickest of the two in a 1:35.000. Webber splits the two as he crosses the finish line. Sebastian Vettel ends up in second place second later. These four cars are on the only ones setting 2 timed laps in Q3, and on their first attempts are all within 4 tenths, first to fourth.

One second from the end, Fernando Alonso is the first to stat his final, and in his case only, flying lap. Alonso already finds himself 5 tenths behind after S2, in total 5 tenths behind Button.

The top cars around here are extremely close to each other. Webber improves on time but not on position while Hamilton improves another tenth, only to find him in second place after Sebastian Vettel crossed the finish line. The German made it again with his famous last lap qualifying performance.