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Sebastian Vettel romped to his third pole position in four races, pipping team-mate Mark Webber to the top slot en route to an all-Red Bull front row. Despite the absence of the much vaunted ‘F-duct’, Red Bull defied popular convention and out-paced the other runners to lock out the front row. |
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Vettel has pole position in his sights after his first timed run in Q3, only to be edged out by Webber in the Australian’s second attempt.
Vettel’s final run showed that there would be little to separate the Red Bull pair, but a quicker final sector did the business and he will start from P1 tomorrow.
Fernando Alonso bounced back from a troubled Friday to line up on the second row, ahead of Mercedes GP driver Nico Rosberg. Just 0.2s covered third to seventh on the grid, which also comprises Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa.
Hamilton was disappointing in Q3. Having headed the timesheets in the two earlier knock-out sessions, he couldn’t muster the pace from his MP4-25 and will start from the third row.
Michael Schumacher will also be left scratching his head, and was again out-qualified by team-mate Rosberg. The seven-time champion will start in ninth place.
The other top-ten runners were Robert Kubica and Adrian Sutil.
Rubens Barrichello almst hauled his Williams into the top-ten reckoning, missing out by just fractions. Team-mate Nico Hulkenberg will be disappointed to only start in 16th after a mistake on his hot lap.
Vitantonio Liuzzi was this weekend’s Q1 casualty, with the Italian blaming traffic delays for costing him a spot in Q2.
Lotus looked set to win the battle of the rookie teams, but were pipped at the post by Timo Glock’s last run, which gave Virgin Racing the bragging rights this time around. Heikki Kovalainen had an exciting spin at Turn 6, and will line up in 21st place.
2010 Malaysian GP Qualifying Times:
| Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | ||
| 1. | Sebastian Vettel |  |
Red Bull Racing | 1:36.317 | 1:35.280 | 1:34.558 |
| 2. | Mark Webber |  |
Red Bull Racing | 1:35.978 | 1:35.100 | 1:34.806 |
| 3. | Fernando Alonso |  |
Ferrari | 1:35.987 | 1:35.235 | 1:34.913 |
| 4. | Nico Rosberg | |
Mercedes GP | 1:35.952 | 1:35.134 | 1:34.923 |
| 5. | Jenson Button |  |
McLaren | 1:36.122 | 1:35.443 | 1:34.979 |
| 6. | Lewis Hamilton | |
McLaren | 1:35.641 | 1:34.928 | 1:35.034 |
| 7. | Felipe Massa |  |
Ferrari | 1:36.076 | 1:35.290 | 1:35.180 |
| 8. | Robert Kubica |  |
Renault | 1:36.348 | 1:35.550 | 1:35.364 |
| 9. | Michael Schumacher | |
Mercedes GP | 1:36.484 | 1:35.715 | 1:35.646 |
| 10. | Adrian Sutil | |
Force India | 1:36.671 | 1:35.665 | 1:35.963 |
| 11. | Rubens Barrichello | |
Williams | 1:36.664 | 1:35.748 | |
| 12. | Jaime Alguersuari | |
Toro Rosso | 1:36.618 | 1:36.047 | |
| 13. | Sébastien Buemi |  |
Toro Rosso | 1:36.793 | 1:36.149 | |
| 14. | Vitaly Petrov |  |
Renault | 1:37.031 | 1:36.311 | |
| 15. | Kamui Kobayashi |  |
Sauber | 1:37.044 | 1:36.422 | |
| 16. | Nico Hülkenberg | |
Williams | 1:37.049 | 1:36.647 | |
| 17. | Pedro de la Rosa | |
Sauber | 1:37.050 | 1:37.020 | |
| 18. | Vitantonio Liuzzi |  |
Force India | 1:37.161 | ||
| 19. | Timo Glock | |
Virgin Racing | 1:39.278 | ||
| 20. | Jarno Trulli | |
Lotus | 1:39.399 | ||
| 21. | Heikki Kovalainen |  |
Lotus | 1:39.520 | ||
| 22. | Lucas di Grassi | |
Virgin Racing | 1:39.783 | ||
| 23. | Bruno Senna | |
HRT | 1:40.469 | ||
| 24. | Karun Chandhok |  |
HRT | 1:40.578 |
[Image from AUTOSPORT]
Richard Bailey
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