Sepang Qualifying: Hamilton too hot for Rosberg

Lewis Hamilton was simply too good for championship leader and title rival Nico Rosberg in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix, as he claimed pole by nearly half a second as his Mercedes teammate wilted under pressure.

Hamilton only needed one fast lap run in Q3 to do the business, while Rosberg played second fiddle throughout the session thanks to several errors when it mattered, including his final run missing the apex of the final turn. Nevertheless the German did well to make up for a mistake packed first flyer in the final stanza of the session.

The world champion was in supreme form. Cool and calm he was the only driver to dip below the 93 seconds mark around the newly resurfaced venue and his best lap time was 0.414 of a second better than Rosberg's best.

Hamilton said afterwards, "Definitely pleased. Big thanks to all fans who turned up. A lot of British flags. Secondly, huge thanks to the team. We have improved. We’ve come here with the best the car has been this year. Great work done coming into this weekend. Could have been a faster lap."

The Mercedes duo will start from the front row at Sepang, with this qualifying again proof that they have at least half a second when needed on their closest rivals, who again were the Red Bulls.

Rosberg summed up his afternoon, "I was going for pole, what else would I be doing out there? I would have come close but made a mistake at the last corner. I couldn't get the settings right at the last corner. Second place doesn't mean victory is not possible, we have seen that many times. I am still optimistic for tomorrow."

It will be an all blue second row and an all red third row, with Max Verstappen starting from third and teammate Daniel Ricciardo alongside in fourth, while the Ferrari boys will line up behind them with Sebastian Vettel in fifth and Kimi Raikkonen in sixth.

Verstappen said, “I don’t know if we can beat them (Mercedes). This weekend there has been positive changes after Singapore. Long race pace is promising, we needed to improve the short work today and we did that.”

Next up were the Force India pair of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg in seventh and eighth respectively, the Mexican is one to watch as Sepang has been a happy hunting ground for him in the past.

Jenson Button, qualifying for his 300th grand prix, was ninth fastest in the McLaren, with Williams driver Felipe Massa rounding out the top ten in what is his last Malaysian Grand Prix weekend.

Earlier In Q1, both Mercedes drivers were on track early, and on soft tyres Hamilton and Rosberg soon established themselves in P1, with the Briton to the fore with a lap of 1:34.444. Rosberg was less than two hundredths of a second adrift.

Behind them Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg was third ahead of Red Bull’s Daniel Riccirado who took fourth on medium tyres. Sergio Perez was fifth in the second Force India, while the second Red Bull of Max Verstappen was sixth. Like his colleague he set his time on medium tyres.

Ferrari also opted for medium tyres in the early runs in the final minutes Ferrari, perhaps concerned that others might greatly improve, sent Raikkonen and Vettel out on softs tyres. They immediately jumped to third and fourth respectively, and to safety.

Verstappen too was forced to bolt on the softs at the end of the session just in case, though he safely made it through in P12 and backed out of the run early to save the set.

In the drop zone going into the final runs, though, were Haas’ Esteban Gutierrez, Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, Felipe Nasr in the second Sauber, Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein, McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and the second Manor of Esteban Ocon.

Gutierrez went into the final runs just four hundredths of a second off Jolyon Palmer’s P16 time and the Mexican easily bypassed that in the closing moments, jumping to P16.

Palmer though erred and slipped down the order. It meant that he qualified in P19 behind Ericsson and Nasr. Also out went Ocon and Wehrlein and Alonso, who due to engine changes will take a sufficiently large grid penalty tomorrow to make extended running in qualifying pointless.

Mercedes were again on track early in Q2 and Rosberg was first across the line with a time of 1:33.609. Hamilton was tearing through the sectors, though, and despite a moment were he overran a kerb the Briton posted a time almost six tenths clear of the championship leader.

Behind them Red Bull took third and fourth with Verstappen ahead, while Ferrari were fifth and sixth. Fifth-place Raikkonen was just five thousandths of a second behind Ricciardo.

In the drop zone ahead og the final Q2 runs were the sole remaining McLaren of Jenson Button, the Haas cars of Romain Grosjean and Gutierrez, Renault’s Kevin Magnussen and the Toro Rossos of Carlos Sainz and Daniil Kvyat.

The top six as well as seventh-placed Felipe Massa of Williams all stayed in their garages for the final runs and it was left to the rest to tussle over the remaining Top 10 spots.

And it was Jenson Button who did the most to claim one of those spots. The Briton, who will tomorrow become just the third man in F1 history to start his 300th grand prix, jumped from P11 to P8 to seal a Q3 berth ahead of Hulkenberg and Perez. All of the top 10 in Q2 set their fastest time on soft tyres, so they will start the race on that compound.

Out then, from P11 back, went Valtteri Bottas, Grosjean, Gutierrez, Magnussen, Kvyat and Sainz.

Mercedes were again early adopters in the final top 10 shootout but Rosberg pile pressure on himself by making a mistake in the final corner. It would see him fifth after the first runs.

Hamilton though was finding time everywhere and at the end of his first run he’d set a blistering time of 1:32.850 to claim provisional P1. That was almost six tenths clear of second-placed Verstappen, with Ricciardo taking fourth ahead of Raikkonen, Rosberg and Vettel.

And it was a similar take in the final runs. Rosberg improved across the first two sectors but again he erred in the final sector. It was enough to secure the championship leader second place on the grid, however, as Verstappen failed to improve.

Ricciardo did improve, but it wasn’t enough to eclipse his team-mate and so he will line up fourth for the second year in a row. Ferrari took row three, while Perez was seventh ahead of Hulkenberg, Button and Massa.

Q1 107% time - 1:41.055 Note - Alonso penalised 45 grid places for unscheduled power unit element changes.