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Formula One: Lewis Hamilton takes 70th pole in Malaysia

By Mark Gero

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - SEPTEMBER 29: Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain driving the (44) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team Mercedes F1 WO8 on track during practice for the Malaysia Formula One Grand Prix at Sepang Circuit on September 29, 2017 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images)
KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - SEPTEMBER 29: Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain driving the (44) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team Mercedes F1 WO8 on track during practice for the Malaysia Formula One Grand Prix at Sepang Circuit on September 29, 2017 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images) /
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Taking advantage of a turbo failure by his rival Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton had no trouble taking his 70th career pole for Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

After struggling to get to the front the day before in free practice two, Lewis Hamilton had no trouble in qualifying Saturday afternoon with a turbo failure from his rival Sebastian Vettel earlier in the day, setting a 1:30:076 time in preparation for Sunday’s Formula One Grand Prix of Malaysia at the Sepang circuit.

For Hamilton, it is his fourth pole in a row on this track and the 70th of his career. Kimi Raikkonen will start 2nd, while Max Verstappen will start 3rd.

Here is what Hamilton had to say about taking the pole position for the race.

"“We had such a difficult day yesterday, it was difficult to know where we stood. I didn’t sleep very well last night, probably like all my engineers as well, because we didn’t know whether we were going to fix the issue or not. Today we arrived and the car was much better but still it looked like Ferrari was a little bit ahead, so some big calls to make ahead of qualifying. Those laps, particularly the first Q3 lap, was very well out together, a very nice lap, I didn’t know where it came from to be honest so a little surprised in myself. So, a surprise to be up here but I’m very grateful.”"

Hamilton had no trouble setting the fastest lap of the day, considering the final 10 qualifiers set out all at the same time with minutes to go in the last round of qualifying. Raikkonen had been in the mix for most of the day, setting the fastest time in the first session, along with his fellow countryman Valtteri Bottas doing the dame in the second session.

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Considering these two drivers were both in good form, Vettel was not so lucky. The German had turbo failure right at the beginning of qualifying and could not get back out onto the circuit. Vettel now will have to start the race from the last position on the grid and it will be a tough battle as he will have to fight hard to get more points to catch Hamilton, who now leads the world championship by 28 points over Vettel.

For the American Haas F1 team, it was a bitter disappointment as both Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen never made it out of the first session, qualifying in 16th and 17th, respectively.
For the rest of the top 10, Daniel Ricciardo made it an all-Red Bull second row by taking 4th, while Bottas qualified 5th.

Esteban Ocon qualified 6th in his Force India, while Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso gave McLaren their first double top 10 qualifying performance this season by qualifying in 7th and 10th, respectively. Nico Hulkenberg qualified 8th in his Renault, while Sergio Perez qualified 9th in the second Force India entry.

Hamilton was relieved afterwards knowing that he had trouble with the new upgrade he had come with. Nevertheless, the day ended up successful for him anyway.

"“We came with an upgrade that was supposed to be better but we were unsure yesterday because we were so far off. We went back to one car trying one, one car trying another. Before qualifying I was thinking of going back to the new package because our times were similar and Valtteri seemed happy on it so I didn’t want to carry a penalty going into qualifying, you want every little millisecond you can get.”"

Here are full qualifying results for the Malaysia Grand Prix.

  1. Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
  2. Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari
  3. Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
  4. Daniel Ricciardo,  Red Bull Racing
  5. Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes
  6. Esteban Ocon, Force India
  7. Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren
  8. Nico Hulkenberg, Renault
  9. Sergio Perez, Force India
  10. Fernando Alonso, McLaren
  11. Felipe Massa, Williams
  12. Jolyon Palmer, Renault
  13. Lance Stroll, Williams
  14. Carlos Sainz, Toro Rosso
  15. Pierre Gasly, Toro Rosso
  16. Romain Grosjean ,Haas
  17. Kevin Magnussen, Haas
  18. Pascal Wehrlein, Sauber
  19. Markus Ericsson, Sauber
  20. Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari

Next: What to watch in Malaysia

With a 28-point lead in the drivers standings, Hamilton could stretch out his lead even more on Sunday with his fourth win in a row.

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