Lewis Hamilton took a great pole position at Sepang ahead of his teammate and rival Nico Rosberg and Max Verstappen.
Q1 : Drivers had to cope with a dusty track following an incident during the TCR race. Pascal Wehrlein was the first one to set a fast time. In their first lap, Hamilton was ahead of Rosberg for less than two hundredths.
The track was actually quite tricky as Jenson Button spun and Jenson Button went into the gravel. Ferrari and Red Bull tried to go to Q2 with the medium compound but only Daniel Ricciardo eventually managed to do it.
No surprise in terms of Q1 eliminations as it stood: Ericsson, Nasr, Palmer, Ocon, Wehrlein, Alonso.
Q2: Hamilton set straight away the best time of the session with a 1:33.0. The Red Bull were seven tenths away from the Mercedes but remained ahead of Ferrari. The only surprise elimination was Bottas’ after a mistake in the last corner. The Finnish would start ahead of Grosjean, Gutierrez, Magnussen, Kvyat and Sainz.
Q3: The first lap was extremely tight as Ferrari and Red Bull were in the same tenths in the second sector. Rosberg completely missed his first lap and found himself down to P5. The German was the first to head out for a second attempt and moved up to P2 despite a mistake in the last corner.
Lewis Hamilton claimed another pole position ahead of Nico Rosberg and Max Verstappen. Ricciardo, Vettel, Raikkonen, Perez, Hulkenberg, Button and Massa completed the top 10.