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Journalism of Courage
Red Bull’s Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel made the most of a well-timed change of tyres in a rainy qualifying session to seize pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix on Saturday.
Vettel will be joined on the front row for the second race of the season by Ferrari’s Felipe Massa,while the Brazilian’s Spanish team mate Fernando Alonso will start in third place.
Lewis Hamilton will complete the second row in his Mercedes with Red Bull’s Mark Webber rounding out the top five.
Vettel secured pole at the season-opening grand prix in Melbourne last week but his raw pace was negated by excessive tyre wear in the race and after finishing third in Australia,the German adopted a cautious approach in the first two rounds of qualifying on Saturday.
After looking a little off the pace before the first drops of rain fell late in Q2,the Red Bull’s speed shone through once the 10 cars in the final round were all fitted with intermediate tyres as a downpour soaked half of the Sepang Circuit.
Vettel opted to change his intermediates early in the final round of qualifying and after lapping more than a second ahead of early pace-setter Hamilton,his time was far too competitive for the two Ferraris to better as the chequered flag was waved.
Melbourne winner Kimi Raikkonen finished down in seventh place,the same position he started from a week ago before the Finn battled through the field to victory.
