Hamilton takes Malaysia GP pole as Ferrari falters

Lewis Hamilton has taken pole position for the Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix as Sebastian Vettel’s championship ambitions took another blow.

Hamilton narrowly beat Kimi Raikkonen to top spot, the Mercedes driver bouncing back from a torrid Saturday to claim his 70th Formula 1 pole.

His championship rival meanwhile will start from last after problems saw Vettel fail to set a time in the session.

The German had a last-minute engine change before the session only for further problems to see him limp back to the pit lane just moments after the session began.

For a time it looked as though the team was ready to send him back out on track in the dying moments of Qualifying 1, only for Vettel to climb from the car.

Max Verstappen was the leading Red Bull in third ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in fourth, with Valtteri Bottas rounding out the third row.

Bottas had been quickest in Qualifying 2, heading the session over Raikkonen while Hamilton could do no better than fourth.

It was then Esteban Ocon who was the fastest Force India driver in sixth over Stoffel Vandoorne, Nico Hulkenberg, Sergio Perez and Ferndando Alonso.

Just outside the top 10 were both Williams, with Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll.

Toro Rosso will also start with both cars down the grid, with Pierre Gasly 15th on debut one place back from Carlos Sainz.

Jolyon Palmer split the Williams, and will start from 12th for tomorrow’s race for Renault.

Further back, Vettel will start from last place on tomorrow’s grid, behind Marcus Ericsson, Pascal Wehrlein, Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, who also failed to make the first cut.

Result: Formula 1 Malaysian Grand Prix Qualifying

Position	Driver	Car	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m30.076s
2	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1m30.121s	0.045s
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull/Renault	1m30.541s	0.465s
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/Renault	1m30.595s	0.519s
5	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1m30.758s	0.682s
6	Esteban Ocon	Force India/Mercedes	1m31.478s	1.402s
7	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren/Honda	1m31.582s	1.506s
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1m31.607s	1.531s
9	Sergio Perez	Force India/Mercedes	1m31.658s	1.582s
10	Fernando Alonso	McLaren/Honda	1m31.704s	1.628s
11	Felipe Massa	Williams/Mercedes	1m32.034s	1.958s
12	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1m32.100s	2.024s
13	Lance Stroll	Williams/Mercedes	1m32.307s	2.231s
14	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m32.402s	2.326s
15	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso/Renault	1m32.558s	2.482s
16	Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari	1m33.308s	3.232s
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas/Ferrari	1m33.434s	3.358s
18	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber/Ferrari	1m33.483s	3.407s
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1m33.970s	3.894s
20	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari