Lewis Hamilton has taken pole position in Malaysia, after his championship rival suffered power unit issues and failed to set a lap. Raikkonen put in a strong performance for second, ahead of Verstappen.
Q1
After a power unit issue in FP3, Ferrari had been working to replace the engine ready for qualifying. Vettel did manage to get out, but there was a turbo issue. They tried to fix the problem before the end of the session but it was too late for Vettel to get a lap in. He will therefore start the race last tomorrow.
Pierre Gasly, in his first ever qualifying, made it through to the next session, pushing out Romain Grosjean. The other Haas, Magnussen, also failed to reach the next session, with 17th. Ericsson and Wehrlein were eliminated in Q1 as well.
Out in Q1:
- Grosjean
- Magnussen
- Wehrlein
- Ericsson
- Vettel
Q2
Bottas set the pace in Q2, with Raikkonen close behind. It was incredibly close at the top, with Hamilton and Verstappen within two tenths of Bottas’ time.
Lower down the order, McLaren showed strong form to get both of their drivers into Q3 – knocking out the Williams pair. Hulkenberg was the only Renault to reach the top ten, with Palmer down in 12th and out of qualifying.
Gasly and Sainz both failed to escape Q2, but it was an impressive performance for Gasly on his debut, less than a tenth of his teammate.
Out in Q2:
- Massa
- Palmer
- Stroll
- Sainz
- Gasly
Q3
Hamilton’s opening lap of the session, a 1:30.076 was a massive improvement on the times in Q2 and put the others under huge pressure. Raikkonen managed to get within 3 tenths of Hamilton on his run, but needed to improve for pole position.
Failing to improve on his second run, Hamilton left it up to Raikkonen to determine who would take pole. Despite an impressive performance, Raikkonen ended the session just 45 thousandths off the pole time.
Verstappen just jumped ahead of Ricciardo in the final seconds of the session, with the Red Bulls securing second row on the grid. Unable to make the step up from Q2, Bottas was disappointed to qualify down in 5th.
Ocon finished 6th ahead of Vandoorne, who put in a strong performance in the McLaren. Hulkenberg finished 8th, Perez 9th and Alonso 10th.
Q3 Results:
- Hamilton
- Raikkonen
- Verstappen
- Ricciardo
- Bottas
- Ocon
- Vandoorne
- Hulkenberg
- Perez
- Alonso
The Grid
Nobody has a grid penalty this weekend, so the provisional grid is therefore the same as they qualified:
Hamilton, Raikkonen; Verstappen, Ricciardo; Bottas, Ocon; Vandoorne, Hulkenberg; Perez, Alonso; Massa, Palmer; Stroll, Sainz; Gasly, Grosjean; Magnussen and Wehrlein; Ericsson and Vettel