Malaysian GP: Hamilton denies Raikkonen pole, disaster for Vettel

Mercedes struggled to get its upgraded F1 car working properly throughout the free practice sessions at the Sepang circuit, but turned things around just in time for Hamilton to get the job done in qualifying.

Hamilton's first flying lap in Q3 proved just enough in the end, as Raikkonen – who was fastest of all in Q2 – fell short by just 0.045 seconds after locking up at the final corner.

The second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas was not so comfortable as Hamilton in qualifying, struggling particularly through the second sector. Bottas ended up only fifth fastest, behind both Red Bulls.

Max Verstappen split Raikkonen and Hamilton in Q2, but fell back in Q3, ending up third fastest, almost half a second away from pole. Teammate Daniel Ricciardo was only half a tenth further back in fourth.

Vettel should have been among the fight for pole, having set the pace on Friday, but his Ferrari suffered an engine problem in final practice, so Ferrari worked through the break between sessions to change his engine.

Vettel made it out for the start of Q1, but reported a loss of drive, which he described as feeling "like I have no turbo", that he couldn't fix with the switch changes suggested by his team.

Vettel was forced back to the pits without setting a time and couldn't return to the track, leaving him last in the classification.

Esteban Ocon took advantage of Vettel's absence to post the sixth quickest time for Force India, ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne's McLaren-Honda, Nico Hulkenberg's Renault, Force India teammate Sergio Perez, and the second McLaren-Honda of Fernando Alonso.

Felipe Massa and Jolyon Palmer were both dumped out of the top 10 in the dying moments of Q2, as Perez, Vandoorne and Alonso all leaped ahead with quicker laptimes.

Massa ended up an agonising 0.024s away from making the cut in 11th, ahead of Palmer, Williams teammate Lance Stroll – who complained of a bad out-lap compromising his second run – and the Toro Rossos of Carlos Sainz and Pierre Gasly.

Neither Toro Rosso driver found time on their second Q2 runs, and Gasly ended up qualifying just 0.156s behind Sainz for his F1 debut, though by lapping slower than he managed in Q1.

Haas teammates Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen failed to make it through to Q2, by more than three tenths of a second, as faster rivals made late improvements and knocked them into the drop zone.

Pascal Wehrlein got his Sauber to within half a tenth of a second of beating Magnussen to 17th place on the grid.

Marcus Ericsson was almost half a second slower in the second Sauber and slowest of those to set a time.

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	1'30.076
2	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	1'30.121	0.045
3	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	1'30.541	0.465
4	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	1'30.595	0.519
5	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	Mercedes	1'30.758	0.682
6	Esteban Ocon	Force India	Mercedes	1'31.478	1.402
7	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	Honda	1'31.582	1.506
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	Renault	1'31.607	1.531
9	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	1'31.658	1.582
10	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	1'31.704	1.628
11	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	1'32.034	1.958
12	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	1'32.100	2.024
13	Lance Stroll	Williams	Mercedes	1'32.307	2.231
14	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso	Renault	1'32.402	2.326
15	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso	Renault	1'32.558	2.482
16	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	1'33.308	3.232
17	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	Ferrari	1'33.434	3.358
18	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber	Ferrari	1'33.483	3.407
19	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	1'33.970	3.894
20	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari