Second consecutive pole for Vettel in rain filled afternoon

Sebastian Vettel has secured his second consecutive pole position of the 2013 season, qualifying just ahead of the Ferrari’s of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso for tomorrow’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

It was also the second consecutive qualifying session which saw rain fall this year, throwing all teams off their strategies and having to re-configure their cars setup in order to accommodate the quickly changing conditions. Yet with the circuit drying up and improving as the final qualifying session took place, Vettel was able to post an impressive lap time of 1:49.674 on a fresh set of Pirelli intermediate tyres putting the Red Bull in prime position over the field.

Ferrari teammates Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso line up behind Vettel in second and third respectively. An impressive run from Massa saw the Brazilian out-qualify Alonso for a fourth straight race (second straight in 2013) but still almost a second off the pace of Vettel.

Lewis Hamilton, who held provisional pole for Mercedes AMG up to the final minute of qualifying today, starts in fourth whilst Mark Webber will start fifth after failing to connect with his Red Bull in the same manner in which Vettel was able to. Hamilton’s teammate Rosberg, who also put forth a strong outing earlier in the day, would manage just sixth place as the chequered flag fell at the end of Q3. Last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix winner Kimi Raikkonen will start from seventh.

Both McLaren’s made it to Q3 this weekend after a tough start to the season in Australia. Jenson Button placed eighth overall whilst new teammate Sergio Perez will start from tenth. The Mercedes powered Force India of Adrian Sutil splits the McLaren’s, managing ninth in the wet. It is the second impressive outing for Adrian Sutil this year who was out of the sport for the entire 2012 season.

A flash-rainfall in Q2 was enough to catch out an unlucky few on track. Romain Grosjean was unable to push his Lotus into Q3, starting tomorrow’s race from P11 ahead of Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, the Toro Rosso of Daniel Ricciardo and Hulkenberg’s Sauber teammate Esteban Gutierrez. Paul di Resta, who qualified fifteenth for the Malaysian Grand Prix, struggled for grip in the wet weather and then blamed his [Force India] team unreservedly for their lack of success in getting through to Q3. Pastor Maldonado will start his Williams from sixteenth on the grid after failing to set a time in Q2.

At the back of the grid, Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne and Williams’ rookie Valterri Bottas dropped out at the end of Q1 after trying to challenge for mid-grid positions. They were joined once again by the Marussia and Caterham drivers. Jules Bianchi was the ‘best of the rest’ today, posting a qualifying time just 0.2 seconds off the pace of Williams’ Valterri Bottas and almost a full second faster than the Caterham of Charles Pic behind him in twentieth. It is also interesting to point out that Bianchi was just 0.6 seconds off Vettel’s Q1 time on the same tyres when Vettel just made it through in P15.

Marussia’s Max Chilton and Caterham’s Giedo van der Garde make up the back row of the grid.

Follow me on Twitter - @IrvineF1