Even McLaren had their doubts that they could beat Mercedes in qualifying in Sepang on Saturday, but an almost perfect first-run lap by Lewis Hamilton and a great second-run lap from Jenson Button secured the front row for them.
Hamilton lapped in 1m 36.219s despite a late lock-up mistake in the final corner, to take his second successive pole position of the season, while Button pushed through to second with 1m 36.368s to edge out Michael Schumacher, who screwed 1m 36.391 out of his Mercedes on his first run. Neither he nor team mate Nico Rosberg made a second run, however, suggesting that the team need to conserve tyres as the W03 is known to be hard on its rubber in races.
Mark Webber and Kimi Raikkonen both lapped in 1m 36.461s, the Australian doing the time first for Red Bull, and the Finns gearbox change yesterday drops his Lotus from an excellent fifth to 10th place for the start.
That was the some consolation for Red Bulls Sebastian Vettel, who was only sixth on 1m 36.634s but had chosen to qualify on the hard Pirellis, and now moves into a fortuitous fifth place start. Romain Grosjean was right with the German, lapping his Lotus in 1m 36.658s ahead of Rosbergs 1m 36.664s.
Pastor Maldonado didnt help his chances with an off exiting Turn 11 at the start of Q2, in which Raikkonen was fastest on 1m 36.715s. The Venezuelan continued after the gravel had been cleaned from his Williams but failed by a tenth to dislodge Perez and thus ended up 11th on 1m 37.589s.
Felipe Massa was closer to Alonso but still didnt make Q3, with 1m 37.731s in the second Ferrari, and behind him it was incredibly close. Williams Bruno Senna was 13th on 1m 37.841s ahead of Force Indias Paul di Resta on 1m 37.877s, Toro Rossos Daniel Ricciardo on 1m 37.883s and Force Indias Nico Hulkenberg on 1m 37.890s, with Saubers Kamui Kobayashi 17th on 1m 38.069s.
As Mark Webber set the initial pace with 1m 37.172s, Q1 weeded out Jean-Eric Vergne, who had to abort his final run for Toro Rosso and was left 18th on 1m 39.077s. Behind him Heikki Kovalainen pipped Caterham team mate Vitaly Petrov, 1m 39.306s to 1m 39.567s, though the Finn takes a five grid place drop to 24th place for a Safety Car passing transgression in Melbourne.
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Grand Prix of Belgium
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