Lewis Hamilton took his 33rd pole position in Malaysia to match Alain Prost and the British record held by Jim Clark after he pipped Sebastian Vettel by five hundredths of a second.
The qualifying session was delayed by 50 minutes due to heavy rain, but eventually got underway with the Mercedes drivers topping all three sessions until Q3 when Sebastian Vettel split the pair to take second.
Nico Rosberg will start third ahead of the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso who narrowly managed to make it through to Q3 after contact with Daniil Kvyat – the incident is under investigation.
The second Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo starts fifth, with Kimi Raikkonen in sixth and Nico Hulkenberg seventh.
Kevin Magnussen, who managed to escape a trip through the gravel, beat team-mate Jenson Button yet to again to start eighth with Jean-Eric Vergne splitting the McLarens.
Lotus improved on their Australian GP form to take 16th and 17th with Romain Grosjean leading Pastor Maldonado, whilst Marcus Ericsson suffered a heavy crash during Q1 to bring out the red flags.
Qualifying – 2014 Malaysian Grand Prix
| # | Driver | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | L. Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:57.202 | 1:59.041 | 1:59.431 |
| 02 | S. Vettel | Red Bull | 1:57.654 | 1:59.399 | 1:59.486 |
| 03 | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:57.183 | 1:59.445 | 2:00.050 |
| 04 | F. Alonso | Ferrari | 1:58.889 | 2:01.356 | 2:00.175 |
| 05 | D. Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:58.913 | 2:00.147 | 2:00.541 |
| 06 | K. Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:59.257 | 2:01.532 | 2:01.218 |
| 07 | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:58.883 | 2:00.839 | 2:01.712 |
| 08 | K. Magnussen | McLaren | 2:00.358 | 2:02.094 | 2:02.213 |
| 09 | J. Vergne | Toro Rosso | 2:01.689 | 2:02.096 | 2:03.078 |
| 10 | J. Button | McLaren | 2:00.889 | 2:01.810 | 2:04.053 |
| 11 | D. Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 2:01.175 | 2:02.351 | |
| 12 | E. Gutierrez | Sauber | 2:01.134 | 2:02.369 | |
| 13 | F. Massa | Williams | 2:00.047 | 2:02.460 | |
| 14 | S. Perez | Force India | 2:00.076 | 2:02.511 | |
| 15 | V. Bottas | Williams | 1:59.709 | 2:02.756 | |
| 16 | R. Grosjean | Lotus | 2:00.202 | 2:02.885 | |
| 17 | P. Maldonado | Lotus | 2:02.074 | ||
| 18 | A. Sutil | Sauber | 2:02.131 | ||
| 19 | J. Bianchi | Marussia | 2:02.702 | ||
| 20 | K. Kobayashi | Caterham | 2:03.595 | ||
| 21 | M. Chilton | Marussia | 2:04.388 | ||
| 22 | M. Ericsson | Caterham | 2:04.407 |
