Hamilton takes pole and lap record at Sepang

F1 Grand Prix, GP Malaysia, Sepang International Circuit

Lewis Hamilton has done the necessary to come back from a disappointing Singapore Grand Prix by taking pole for the Malaysian Grand Prix. The Brit meanwhile also improved the lap record around Sepang that stood since 2004.

Pascal Wehrlein kicked off the on-track action in qualifying, along with his team mate Sebastien Ocon. Even though they did indeed set the first times, it needs no explanation they didn't remain fastest for a long while, as Mercedes was out early as well, with Hamilton immediately jumping atop the timesheet, ahead of team mate Rosberg.

A few minutes later, Romain Grosjean continued to encounter incessant car trouble, this time losing his right rear view mirror. The Frenchman did manage to progress through to 2, but was obviously not too happy with yet another issue on his car.

Jenson Button meanwhile was vocally complaining about traffic, claiming to be losing time on each quick lap he did. The Brit still got though without problems, contrary to team mate Fernando Alonso. The latter opted to do some running on the medium tyre, and eventually ended up in 22nd position after 3 flying laps. The team had reported beforehand that they would not be pushing, given that a 45-position grid penalty would force him to start from the back of the grid anyway.

Apart from Alonso, both Sauber and both Manor cars got eliminated, along with Jolyon Palmer after the Renault driver made a mistake on his final flying lap.

Q2 started off with a blistering lap from Hamilton, breaking the lap record from 2004 by going round the track in 1:33.046 on the soft tyres. That was an impressive 6 tenths quicker than Rosberg's time. Both Red Bull's subsequently slotted in behind in third and fourth with Raikkonen leading Ferrari's challenge in 5th, with Vettel 6th.

Massa's lap, which his race engineer dubbed "a cracking lap" was good for 7th, ahead of Button and both Force India's. This meant Bottas was out, along with both Haas, both Toro Rosso cars and Kevin Magnussen in the remaining Renault.

When it was time for the big shots to turn up the engines in Q3, it's exactly what Lewis Hamilton did, going another 2 tenths quicker than his time in Q2 on his first attempt. Verstappen and Ricciardo therefore moved down a spot into second and third while Rosberg only managed 5th, in between both Ferraris. The German Mercedes driver made a couple of mistakes on his first lap to miss 8 tenths on his team mate.

Come the next attempts, raindrops here and there were reported, but nothing of the sort that would trouble running. In fact, it still allowed Rosberg to recover from his earlier mistakes and get up into second position, even though replays showed he oversteered a bit through the final turn.

Vettel also managed a last minute improvement to qualify ahead of his team mate, edging out Raikkonen by 0.048s.