Formula 1

2014 MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX – QUALIFYING

Lewis Hamilton qualified on pole position, Sebastian Vettel took second and Nico Rosberg in third place after a closely contested qualifying session for the 2014 PETRONAS Malaysian Grand Prix. Heavy downpours at the Sepang International Circuit delayed the start of the session by 50 minutes, with wet conditions remaining throughout.

Lewis Hamilton

I’m really happy with our result today. It was a very close session and I’m relieved to come away with pole position as it was pretty tense towards the end. The lap was far from being my optimum: I should have been able to eke out a little more time but thankfully it wasn´t needed. Conditions were incredibly difficult and it would have been so easy to get it wrong today. At times towards the end it was almost impossible to see if anyone was behind me. The team have done a great job once again, we have a great car, and we now have to convert this performance tomorrow.

Sebastian Vettel

“My heartbeat was rising very quickly in Q1 when we realised there was an issue. We came in and restarted the car, which seemed to solve the problem and after that it was fine. It was good to go out and get another feel for the car in the wet conditions. Q3 was not perfect; I would have loved to have had a second go – on my first attempt I felt there was a little bit of time to gain here and there. It was very close, maybe too close, as if you look at the margin it was possible to go faster, but then if Lewis would have had another chance he would have improved also so, would should, could, at the end of the day it’s good to be on the front row and it should be the good side of the grid for tomorrow – it depends on how our start is, but I’m happy with the result.”

Nico Rosberg

I didn´t feel very comfortable on the extreme wet tyres at the end of Q3, especially on the brakes, but I was still able to improve enough to claim third from Fernando which was the positive for me. We’ve definitely improved the way we manage the sessions since Australia, so I was the last car to cross the line, but unfortunately the track didn’t really improve. It will definitely be a difficult ýand eventful race as the weather is predicted to be the same again, but that will give me opportunities to gain some positions. I’m looking forward to the race and I want to get the best out of it, like we did in Melbourne.