Lewis Hamilton snatched his 70th career pole position in Malaysia on Saturday – his fourth consecutive pole at the circuit – as he narrowly beat Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen by just 0.045 seconds.
The Mercedes driver, who currently heads the championship by 28 points to Sebastian Vettel, will be looking to further extend his advantage as Vettel's title chances took a major blow during the opening qualifying segment.
Vettel will start from the very back of the grid after encountering turbo issues. Ferrari opted to change the German's engine between FP3 and qualifying after spotting an electrical issue, however further woes struck during Q1 as he failed to set a timed lap.
Max Verstappen made it three different teams in the top three as he secured third on the grid on his 20th birthday, albeit half a second down on Hamilton's laptime, with team-mate Daniel Ricciardo fourth.
Valtteri Bottas struggled to match his team-mate's pace and will start fifth, failing to get within half a second of the pole man's time.
Force India's Esteban Ocon starts sixth ahead of McLaren's Stoffel Vandoorne and Renault's Nico Hulkenberg, with the second Force India of Sergio Perez ninth. Fernando Alonso completed the top ten.
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