Vettel takes pole again ahead of Hamilton and Webber

[Dinesh]

It was a dogfight to the end but Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel managed to pip McLaren's Lewis Hamilton to pole for the 2011 Petronas Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang International Circuit with teammate Mark Webber coming in third and the other McLaren, piloted by Jenson Button, completing the two front rows.

Although Hamilton held an advantage with the fastest time in Q3, even managing to improve on it to a 1:34:974 in the final run. Nonetheless, Vettel once again pulled out all the stops to clock a 1:34:870 to get pole.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso came in fifth, leading the 'best of the rest' group and admitting himself that his Prancing Horse severely lacked pace to keep up with the Red Bulls and McLarens. Completing a disappointing qualifying for Ferrari was Felipe Massa coming in seventh.

The Renaults once again had a promising qualifying, building on Vitaly Petrov's third spot in Australia. Nick Heidfeld took sixth spot and Petrov came in eighth.

Mercedes' Nico Rosberg took ninth ahead of Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi, who himself will start the race with Michael Schumacher in his rear view mirror. The German once again missed out on a Q3 spot and will start from eleventh place.

Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari will start from twelfth and thirteenth spot respectively after Buemi had to get a replacement sidepod panel after it flew off his car during Q1 and momentarily brought out the red flag.

Full Qualifying results:

1. Sebastian Vettel- Red Bull Renault 1:34:870
   
2. Lewis Hamilton- McLaren Mercedes 1:34:974
   
3. Mark Webber- Red Bull Renault 1:35:179
   
4. Jenson Button- McLaren Mercedes 1:35:200
   
5. Fernando Alonso- Ferrari 1:35:802
   
6. Nick Heidfeld- Renault 1:36:124
   
7. Felipe Massa- Ferrari 1:36:251
   
8. Vitaly Petrov- Renault 1:36:324
   
9. Nico Rosberg- Mercedes 1:36:324
   
10. Kamui Kobayashi- Sauber Ferrari 1:36:820
    
11. Michael Schumacher- Mercedes 1:37:035
    
12. Sebastien Buemi- Toro Rosso 1:37:160
    
13. Jaime Alguersuari- Toro Rosso 1:37:347
    
14. Paul di Resta- Force India 1:37:370
    
15. Rubens Barrichello- Williams 1:37:496
    
16. Sergio Perez- Sauber Ferrari 1:37:528
    
17. Adrian Sutil- Force India 1:37:593
    
18. Pastor Maldonado- Williams 1:38:276
    
19. Heikki Kovalainen- Team Lotus 1:38:645
    
20. Jarno Trulli- Team Lotus 1:38:791
    
21. Timo Glock- Virgin Cosworth 1:40:648
    
22. Jerome D'Ambrosio- Virgin Cosworth 1:41:001
    
23. Tonio Luizzi- HRT Cosworth 1:41:549
    
24. Narain Karthikeyan- HRT Cosworth 1:42:574

 

[zack2terer]

finished already

1. vettel
2. button
3. heidfeld

 

[E-Tech]

Race already completed. Still news flash regarding pole position...

 

[skazareth]

thats why la...haiya.. so slow......

 

[barberatf]

but Button did not respond and Schumacher backed off. Vettal tried to do a similar scare to Webber, Webber did not respond (he shouldn't do so anyway) and they collided.
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