Vettel pips Hamilton to pole

Date: 9th April 2011 at 11:12 am | Filed under: Ferrari,Formula 1 News,McLaren,Red Bull Racing | Author: Thomas Rooney | Tags: Lewis Hamilton, Malaysaian GP, Malaysia, McLaren, Qualifying, Red Bull, Sebastian Vettel | image © Action Images

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel will take pole position in tomorrow’s Malaysian Grand Prix after he pipped McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton by just 0.104 seconds on the very last lap of qualifying at Sepang.

It was a thrilling battle between the two front runners and one which many expect to continue in tomorrow’s highly anticipated race.

Red Bull and McLaren were once again the dominant teams, with Mark Webber and Jenson Button completing the top four.

Beyond this in the shoot out for pole position, Ferrari’s main man Fernando Alonso finished fifth, Nick Heidfeld of Renault was sixth, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa managed seventh, Renault’s Vitaly Petrov was in eigth, Nico Rosberg of Mercedes finished ninth and finally Sauber’s Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi came tenth.

Earlier, former world champion Michael Schumacher finished 11th, while Britain’s Paul Di Resta of Force India produced another impressive display to finish 14th.

All the talk afterwards has been about the battle between Red Bull and McLaren. More specifically the fascinating contest between Vettel and Hamilton.

McLaren are proving to be much quicker than expected and produced some excellent times in this qualifying session. They are fierce rivals to Red Bull right now and Vettel and co know it.

Let’s look at the full list of results before taking a glance over the early qualifying reaction and thoughts ahead of tomorrow’s eagerly anticipated race.

1	germany	Sebastian Vettel	1	Red Bull-Renault	1:37.468	1:35.934	1:34.870
2	great britain	Lewis Hamilton	3	McLaren-Mercedes	1:36.861	1:35.852	1:34.974
3	australia	Mark Webber	2	Red Bull-Renault	1:37.924	1:36.080	1:35.179
4	great britain	Jenson Button	4	McLaren-Mercedes	1:37.033	1:35.569	1:35.200
5	spain	Fernando Alonso	5	Ferrari	1:36.897	1:36.320	1:35.802
6	germany	Nick Heidfeld	9	Renault	1:37.224	1:36.811	1:36.124
7	brazil	Felipe Massa	6	Ferrari	1:36.744	1:36.557	1:36.251
8	russian federation	Vitaly Petrov	10	Renault	1:37.210	1:36.642	1:36.324
9	germany	Nico Rosberg	8	Mercedes GP	1:37.316	1:36.388	1:36.809
10	japan	Kamui Kobayashi	16	Sauber	1:36.994	1:36.691	1:36.820
11	germany	Michael Schumacher	7	Mercedes GP	1:36.904	1:37.035
12	switzerland	Sebastien Buemi	18	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:37.693	1:37.160
13	spain	Jaime Alguersuari	19	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	1:37.677	1:37.347
14	great britain	Paul Di Resta	15	Force India-Mercedes	1:38.045	1:37.370
15	brazil	Rubens Barrichello	11	Williams-Cosworth	1:38.163	1:37.496
16	mexico	Sergio Perez	17	Sauber	1:37.759	1:37.528
17	germany	Adrian Sutil	14	Force India-Mercedes	1:37.693	1:37.593
18	venezuela	Pastor Maldonado	12	Williams-Cosworth	1:38.276
19	finland	Heikki Kovalainen	20	Lotus-Renault	1:38.645
20	italy	Jarno Trulli	21	Lotus-Renault	1:38.791
21	germany	Timo Glock	24	Virgin-Cosworth	1:40.648
22	belgium	Jerome d’Ambrosio	25	Virgin-Cosworth	1:41.001
23	italy	Vitantonio Liuzzi	23	Hispania-Cosworth	1:41.549
24	india	Narain Karthikeyan	22	Hispania-Cosworth	1:42.574

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso: “It was not easy. We found we were not competitive enough in morning practice, so it was again a conservative approach, and only do one run in Q3. You have to risk but at the same time not too much. It is a stressful situation. We did our job today, knowing we must improve.”

BBC Pundit Eddie Jordan:“No one even thought McLaren were even close to this level of performance. From Australia qualifying to this, it’s just remarkable.”

Red Bull Team pricipal Christian Horner on beating Hamilton’s excellent time: “No I didn’t expect it. An absolutely fantastic lap from Seb. The McLarens have been quick all weekend.”

It certainly was an incredible lap from Vettel to take pole from Hamilton. Red Bull have now been on pole in 17 of the last 21 Grand Prix events.

A truly remarkable record from a sublime team of course, but it also highlights how fantastically McLaren are doing to run them so close.

Tomorrow’s race, which will see a 24-man grid for the first time this season, is set to be an explosive battle between Red Bull and McLaren and one you shouldn’t take your eyes off.

As ever, anything can happen, but for now the ever consitant Vettel is once again the man to beat.

The Malaysian Grand Prix takes place on the 10th April. For all of the build-up, latest news and reaction stay right here on Formula 1 FanCast.