Verstappen on pole in Malaysia, Hamilton second. Russell: "Worst qualification"

"It's fantastic" commented Verstappen at the end of qualifying. "We tried for many Grands Prix to get pole and we finally succeeded: the first time in the season is incredible. I'm very happy for today, clearly when you start from first place the objective for Sunday's race is to win, even if it's never happened so far in the season", he added.

After qualifying, Hamilton said: "It's beautiful, I don't remember such a large crowd here in Malaysia and I'm happy with the welcome." Then he added: "It's very hot here but this makes the challenge enormous, for the tyres, for the cars, for the mechanics and for everyone." The driver then said he was "grateful to the team, we made a lot of changes throughout the various sessions because the car was slipping, we got the last one right before qualifying, reducing the gap to Verstappen". Tomorrow "it will be a completely different challenge in making the tires last, it will be important to have a good balance", he reiterated.

George Russell, after a qualifying in which he finished eighth, declared that "we don't know what went wrong, the asphalt is aggressive and the tires are hell for everyone". He continued: "It's by far our worst qualifying of the season, but we can still compete for the podium tomorrow."