World championship leader Lewis Hamilton hailed an amazing turnaround Saturday after taking pole for the Malaysian Grand Prix with title rival Sebastian Vettel condemned to the back of the grid. Hamilton had been off the pace all weekend in practice but his Mercedes stormed back in qualifying to set a lap record of 1min 30.076sec, a whisker ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. "We had no idea what was going to happen today," said Hamilton, who had endured a torrid Friday as his Mercedes took a dislike to an aerodynamic upgrade package and he finished sixth in both practice sessions.
Hamilton and his mechanics opted to strip the car of the updates for Saturday and it did the trick. "I don't really know where the pole lap came from, I surprised myself," admitted Hamilton. "Somehow we managed to turn it around and it is a real surprise to be up here with these guys," added Hamilton, who secured his ninth pole of the season at the last-ever running of the race. "I'm very grateful to the team. The car felt good."
Vettel's world championship hopes suffered a huge blow when he lost drive leaving his Ferrari without a completed lap in first qualifying. He will start at the back of the grid despite being consistently quickest during practice. "It feels like I have no turbo," he said over team radio as he crawled back to the pits in his first qualifying stint.
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