F1 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix: Hamilton’s ‘almost perfect’ qualifying lap

The 26-year-old Vodafone McLaren Mercedes star will start Sunday’s race in Malaysia from the front row.
Hamilton looked set to take pole position around the steamy Sepang International Circuit outside Kuala Lumpur with a stunning time of 1 minute 35.000 seconds in the opening minutes of the top 10 shootout.

The 2008 F1 world champion from Herts went faster than that in the closing stages of qualifying but was then beaten by Sebastian Vettel’s Red Bull by one-tenth of a second with a blistering 1m 34.870s.

Nevertheless, Hamilton was still delighted at parking his McLaren MP4-26 on the front row with a Q3 time of 1 minute 34.974 seconds on Option tyres.

Sepang International Circuit specifications

Top speed: 310km/h
Average speed: 205km/h
Pit straight length: 0.9km
Circuit length: 5.5km
Race length: 56 laps / 310km
Number of corners: 15
Longest section at full throttle: 12 sec / 830m
Average track temperature: 60°C

“That was an almost perfect lap – I lost a tenth-and-a-half in Turn 14 – so we’re much closer to the front than we’d anticipated, which is positive for us,” said Herts-born Hamilton.

“I’m really happy to be up on the front row. Hopefully, I’ll have a better start than I did in Melbourne, so we can have more of a fight and I’ll get a chance to compete with Sebastian [Vettel] at the first corner and for the first couple of laps.”

While Hamilton starts from second, McLaren team-mate Jenson Button, 31, will line-up fourth on the grid alongside third-placed Mark Webber in the other Red Bull.

Button had been quickest in the second phase of qualifying with 1m 35.569s but had to settle for fourth in Q3 with a lap of 1m 35.200s.

"I’m really happy to be up on the front row."

Lewis Hamilton after 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying

“I just wish Q2 had been Q3, but it wasn’t! I had a touch more oversteer in Q3, but that’s the set-up direction I chose to take,” said Button.

“The balance was pretty good, but I hurt the tyres a little bit too much in the final sector, and that left me in fourth.

Having been a couple of seconds slower than Red Bull in winter testing, McLaren’s hard work in the factory seems to have paid off, as team principal Martin Whitmarsh acknowledged.
He said: “Both our drivers drove really well this afternoon, Lewis missing out on pole position by a just a tenth of a second and Jenson qualifying extremely close behind in fourth place.

“Clearly, we’re encouraged by our pace here – but there’s no magic involved: Formula 1 is all about hard graft, and I want to thank everyone back in Woking for working so hard to achieve the performance improvements that we’ve seen here today.”
The 2011 Grand Prix of Malaysia starts at 9am UK time on Sunday, with the race being shown live on BBC One.

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