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Hamilton, Button Head McLaren 1-2 Grid Positions In Malaysia

SEPANG, Malaysia- Following his huge success in practice just a day ago, Lewis Hamilton remained the fastest man on the grid as the Briton recorded a 1:36:219 to take his second consecutive pole this season for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Malaysia at the Sepang International Circuit.

Hamilton’s McLaren teammate, Jenson Button, who won the last race in Australia, was second, and Michael Schumacher placed in the top three in qualifying for the first time since he returned to racing two years ago.

“Qualifying is an intense experience and, as drivers, we all put a huge amount of pressure on ourselves, but it’s probably the part of the race weekend I most enjoy.” Revealed Hamilton. “On my quickest lap in Q3, I lost a little time in the final corner- maybe a tenth and a half – so it’s massively encouraging to still be in the position I’m in. It’s great for the team to have another one-two, too: that’s a huge achievement from everybody, but we just need to make sure we keep pushing because the guys behind us won’t give up. Tomorrow, there’s a long haul down to Turn One, but I’ll be making sure to get a good launch and stay ahead cleanly. Anyway, the key will be to look after your tires in the race – they’ll have a tough time, especially on 150kg of fuel.”

Mark Webber began the opening session with the fastest time of 1:31:172, just achieving this seconds before the end of the session. Schumacher finished just a close second, while the regular cars of Marussia, Caterham and HRT failed to advance. Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne was the only midfield driver who failed to advance with his Toro Rosso.

Kimi Raikkonen kept the surprise level going in the second session, as he topped the time sheets in his Lotus with a 1:36:715, while Felipe Massa continued to have problems in his Ferrari, failing to qualify and ending up a disappointing 12 th .

But while the others moved up, both McLaren drivers were staying on an even level, and by the time the final session took place, both Hamilton and Button advanced to be on the front row for the second consecutive race.

Webber led the best of the rest by finishing fourth, while Raikkonen took fifth despite having to start 10 th on the grid Sunday because of a gearbox change. Defending world champion Sebastian Vettel was not heard from all day, and the German will start from an unheard of sixth position, while Romain Grosjean continued his success with a seventh place finish in his Lotus. Nico Rosberg, Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez rounded out the top ten.

The weather is always changing at this venue, and considering there was no rain on Saturday, race day might be different. Nevertheless, Hamilton is concerned, because the McLaren driver is hoping that his car is better in performance on race day.

“We’ve hopefully got a car that has better race pace than it does qualifying pace. It’s been a good weekend for the team so far, but we’ll keep pushing massively for another strong result tomorrow.” Hamilton concluded.

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