Hamilton: I’m sorry for whatever happened to Sebastian

Earlier this season Lewis Hamilton revealed how much he was relishing the world championship battle with Sebastian Vettel, but the latter has suffered a sequence of torrid bad luck with a turbo failure during qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix rendering him to the back at the grid for the race at Sepang - his Mercedes rival feels for his plight.

Immediately after claiming his 70th pole position, Hamilton said, "I’m sorry for whatever happened to Sebastian, because obviously he was very, very quick through practice. He would have been up there with us, he’d been driving well all weekend, very, very quick, between him and Kimi. Very unfortunate for him.

Hamilton once again delivered when required, a blistering lap (in the words of Mercedes boss Toto Wolff) which was enough to claim the top spot start and set himself up to further extend the championship lead which currently stands at 28 points.

But it has not been plain sailing for the Silver Arrows in Malaysia, "We had such a difficult day yesterday; it was difficult to know where we stood. I didn't sleep very well last night, just like all my engineers, because we didn't know whether we were going to fix the issue or not."

"But today we arrived and the car was much better. The Q3 laps, particularly the first one, were very well put together. To be honest, I didn't really know where it came from. So it's a bit of a surprise to be on pole, but I'm very grateful. It's always a special thing when you're able to extract a little bit more out of the car."

"That's what I've always enjoyed since my dad would say that my first go-kart was fifth hand. I don't really know what happened to Sebastian. It's very unfortunate for him, but of course we have to try to maximise on every opportunity that we get. We still have a very tough race ahead of us, so we will keep our heads down."

For Mercedes and their title sponsor Petronas, Sepang is a home race, however it is the last grand prix for the venue in this era.

Nevertheless the crowd that turned up for the final qualifying was enthusiastic, Hamilton acknowledged, "Today, every time I left the garage or came back in I could see the crowd and all those flags opposite my garage - I'm incredibly grateful for that and get a lot of energy from it."