Sebastian Vettel grabbed his second straight pole after topping the timesheets in the qualifying session of the Formula One Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang.
The Red Bull driver and three-time defending world champion timed 1:49.674 in Q3 to grab pole, with Ferrari duo Felipe Massa (1:50.587) and Fernando Alonso (1:50.727) coming in second and third respectively.
"I think generally an interesting qualifying session," Vettel said. "We knew that rain was the on the way and then... to be honest we expected already some (rain) at the beginning of qualifying but it didn't come, so going out on dry (tyres).
"I think we had a bit of a different approach to other people. Q2 was quite on edge I would say, so probably the rain helped us a little bit. Otherwise, I think we would have had to go out again. But, in that case it was just enough to go through to Q3.
"Then in Q3 with the circuit drying, it was clear it was better to change tyres. We confirmed that pretty early. I think we did the right thing. Very tricky because you don't know if there's more rain coming or not, but we took the decision. Bit surprised by the gap but a decent lap and I was very happy obviously."
Alonso, who finished second in the opening race in Melbourne, hoped his Ferrari car would stay the course and compete in the race on Sunday.
"Try to do a good race and try to score as many points as possible," he said. "We are not sure about the performance, the car in race pace. Obviously every long run we do is a little bit inconsistent -- sometimes we are okay, sometimes not -- and we need to see tomorrow how the race goes.
"We did not have big problems in the long runs on Friday. In Melbourne the race pace was OK, so no reason not to be optimistic for tomorrow. But, we'll see what we can do."
Last race winner Kimi Raikkonen of Lotus could only manage seventh, while Lewis Hamilton starts fourth in his second race in a Mercedes car, one place ahead of Red Bull's Mark Webber.
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