F1: McLaren Remains Hot In Malaysia Qualifying

Formula 1

F1: McLaren Remains Hot In Malaysia Qualifying

For the second straight week, teammates Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button rule on Saturday...

Jared Turner | Posted March 24, 2012 Sepang (MAS)

The McLaren juggernaut remains alive Malaysia.

A week after opening the 2012 Formula One season with a pole and win in Australia, it was a McLaren on top once again at the conclusion of Saturday's qualifying session at warm and dry Sepang International Circuit.

And just like in Australia qualifying, the famous British outfit made it a clean sweep of the top two positions.

Making it back-to-back poles was Lewis Hamilton, whose leading Q3 lap of 1:36:219 was enough to edge Australia winner Jenson Button (1:36:368) and the Mercedes of Michael Schumacher (1:36:391).

Hamilton now hopes that unlike last weekend, when he finished third after being overtaken by teammate Button in the first corner, he can hold on and contend for the victory.

"I don't know if it's the best place to start here," the 2008 World Champion said. "I will hopefully have the car in a better position for the race tomorrow, so I'm excited about that."

Also excited was Schumacher, who qualified on the podium for the first time since coming out of retirement to return to Formula One in 2010.

The seven-time World Champion, whose Mercedes has been quick out of the gate in 2012, downplayed the notion that he could have beaten the McLarens for the pole.

"This was the maximum that was available," Schumacher said of his grid position.

Red Bull's Mark Webber and the Lotus of Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top five.

Raikkonen, however, will carry a five-place grid penalty into the Malaysian GP for an unscheduled gearbox change prior to Saturday's FP3.

Reigning World Champion Sebastian Vettel, fresh off a second-place finish in Melbourne, made it two straight sixth-place qualifying runs to start the season, as the Lotus of Romain Grosjean, Mercedes' Nico Rosberg, Ferrari's Fernando Alonso and Sauber's Sergio Perez completed the rest of the top 10.

After a largely disappointing performance in Australia, Felipe Massa's struggles continued in Malaysia qualifying as the Brazilian failed to get his Ferrari out of Q2 and landed only the 12th spot on the grid. Also missing the Q3 cut was the Williams of Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado, who challenged for a top-five finish in Australia before a last-lap crash.

Michael Schumacher turned the quickest lap in opening practice at Monza. (Photo: LAT Photographic)

Falling one position short of Q2 cut was the surprisingly slow Toro Rosso of rookie Jean-Eric Vergne, who will line up 18th a week after qualifying 11th for his Formula One debut. Vergne's teammate, Australian Daniel Ricciardo, advanced to Q2 but is only three positions further up the grid.

Caterham's Heikki Kovalainen qualified 19th out of 24 drivers but will start last due to a five-place grid penalty for passing under the safety car in Australia.

Just ahead of the Finn will be the HRT entries of Narain Karthikeyan and Pedro de la Rosa, who both qualified within the 107 percent window a week after failing to make the show in Melbourne.

Qualifying concludes Saturday's on-track activities in Sepang.

Tune in for SPEED's live coverage of the Malaysian Grand Prix at 3:30 a.m. ET Sunday.

Jared Turner is an Associate Editor for SPEED.com, covering NASCAR and Formula One, and is an Editor for TruckSeries.com. His professional motorsports writing career began in 2005.