Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix, despite making a significant mistake on his fastest lap. Jenson Button made it a perfect day for McLaren with a lap time that was a tenth down on Hamilton, but ahead of Michael Schumacher’s best effort in the Mercedes. The German was not far behind Button but did not try for a second run, preferring to save tyres, which underlines that the team may be expecting tyre trouble on Sunday, as happened in Melbourne. Mark Webber was fourth fastest with an identical time to Kimi Raikkonen, but the Finn will drop to 10th on the grid because of a gearbox change penalty. Tat will move Vettel up to fifth but his best lap was off the pace of Webber, an interesting development. Romain Grosjean will start sixth ahead of Nico Rosberg, who also did only one run, while Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez completed the top 10.
“It has been a good weekend so far,” Hamilton said. “It has been a tough day with the changing weather conditions but we changed settings but still managed to set some good times,” said Lewis Hamilton.
“Qualifying has been pretty good for me for the last two races, so I cannot complain,” said Button. Lewis did a great lap, we edged closer but could not quite get there.”
“This was the maximum that was available,” said Michael Schumacher. “We managed to work the car very well over the weekend.”
joeblogsf1 
It looks like Vettel was on the harder tyre….
Yes he was. But he was the only one in Q3. How much is the difference between the medium and the soft tyre in Sepang?
Vettel on prime tyre I think?
Great for Lewis, except he did his pole lap on the previous set of tyres of which he flat spotted one heavily. So he will have to start with a vibration and an obvious reduced grip off that tyre until it has worn smooth again, this will allow Jensen to get past again and possibly Schumi may muscle him out on a corner. The clutch (which it is claimed gave him a slow start in Oz) has supposedly been fixed so it is about evens as to who is in front after the first lap. We could see a Lap1 or 2 tyre change for Lewis.
I have asked before and never got confirmation as to how the FIA ensure the correct (fastest lap set) tyres are fitted for the start, for the top ten cars. I have suggested it would use RFID chips in the tyres which would seem logical to me, with readers on the pit exit or maybe via the then the timing system transponders. Any light there to be shed Joe?
I was under the impression that every tyre manufactured is given a unique serial number, and that those 4 serials are recorded and checked. Not 100% on that though…
I seem to recall the tires are bar coded and checked by race officials with a reader before the off.
I seriously doubt it.
If the tyres are that badly flat spotted, he’ll be allowed to change them for safety reasons. Looking at the replay, they don’t look that bad to me.
If you have sufficiently flat spotted a tyre, the FIA will allow the team to change it under part ferme. So, if Lewis starts with the same tyre, it can’t be badly damaged enough to cause him problems.
Aren’t the teams allowed to skim the tyres before the race?
Joe,
With Schumacher beating Rosberg for the second time in qualifying, do you think if this continues his place in the team is under threat?
Probably not since Rosberg has a multiple year contract and Schumacher might retire at the end of the year. So Rosberg is the future, unless he does a Massa.
By that logic, vettel must be feeling the pressure at red bull…
But Vettel is starting on the primes.
Might be a smart move ?
Might be, but he will have less grip on the start line and could get mugged by the likes of Rosberg/Raik.. etc.
Also, rain is forecast, which means it really is a gamble – amazing if he can time it perfectly so that he doesn’t have to change until the rain, while everyone else has changed tyres and has to change again for inters/wets. Or he will do the same amount of time on the hards as everyone as does on the softs, but he’ll be slower, and the rain makes everyone change. Red Bull clearly under pressure… radical strategy!
Maybe. But with such a long run to the first corner, he may also be swamped by the cars behind him. Looks pretty 50:50 to me right now.
Webber always qualifies well here
It will all be moot if the expected rain occurs. Can’t wait!!! Might even try and catch this one live, 4:00 a.m. here.
The flat spot was not significant the team will re-balance the wheel to reduce any vibration.
Vettel’s strategy will work until he has to switch to the medium option so his only hope is to push very hard during the start and hope to stay out longer than everyone else. Once on the option he may find the same problems he had in quali. Added to this will be whether he gets stuck in traffic at the start. I hope he manages to negate all this though because I’ve got money riding on him.
Of course if it rains all this goes out the window.
I’m very excited!
Could be as smart move – but it could be wet anyway
How much longer will this race be sacrificed toBernie’s cock-eyed idea about what time we like to watch races in Europe ?
congrat to lewis..
keep fight !!
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