Asked if he felt vindicated after defying his critics of his switch from
McLaren, Hamilton, starting on the front row alongside Kimi Raikkonen,
replied: “I can’t really answer it with one result, but it is a blessing to
be at the front.
“This was such a big move for me, but I think I made the right decision.”
At least there was a warmth of sentiment from his former team, as Hamilton and
fellow Briton Jenson
Button, with whom he has had a sometimes fractious relationship,
embraced fondly afterwards.
McLaren principal Martin Whitmarsh was similarly generous, describing him as a
“great driver in a very good car”.
It was an extraordinary performance from Hamilton, who as recently as Thursday
had been confined to his hotel room with eye problems, having suffered an
allergy.
This time he showed his vision was anything but impaired as he eviscerated the
competition by three tenths of a second and out-qualified team-mate Nico
Rosberg, starting fourth, for the third successive race.
Raikkonen, the winner last month in Melbourne, again impressed for Lotus in
second, with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso third.
Brawn offered a lavish of appreciation of Hamilton’s efforts: “We didn’t see
the best of him here on the first day because of his illness,” said Brawn.
“It always takes time to settle into a team but we have seen the first sign of
that happening here today. He has been quick, naturally, but with a quiet
determination.”
Even Hamilton, by common consent the driver with the greatest raw speed in F1,
was surprised by his 0.3sec margin of superiority over Raikkonen yesterday.
“The gap is really surprising. We didn’t know if we would have enough pace.”
With the majority of drivers on the fast-degrading soft Pirelli tyres rather
than the medium compound, qualifying was full of extended periods of
inactivity, and not a single time was set in the third session until after
the chequered flag had fallen.
It is likely to be a complex race, with all the drivers in the top eight
facing an early pit stop on the fragile softs.
Behind them, Button in eighth and Vettel in ninth should find that their
mediums last longer, around 20 laps.
Vettel said: “We are obviously on a different strategy, and we will see
whether it works. But I am confident that we did the right thing.”
The disappointment was acute for Red Bull, following the high-profile
contretemps between Vettel and Webber in Malaysia.
Vettel, the triple world champion, locked up into a chicane and was promptly
instructed to return to the pit-lane, while Webber starts the grand prix
dead last due to apparent problems with his fuel pump.
It was an unfortunate ignominy for the Australian, whose pride remains wounded
after Vettel disobeyed instructions to overtake him for the win at Sepang.
Here he was left stranded at the side of the track as his car sputtered to a
halt. “It’s just disappointing after all the work that has gone in,” said
Webber, who failed to reach the highly tactical top-10 shoot-out.
“We need to understand what happened and make sure that it doesn’t happen
again.”
Webber was initially 14th in the standings but was put back to 22nd as his
fuel quantity fell short of the requisite FIA sample. The same issue had
forced Vettel to start at the back of the grid in Abu Dhabi last year.
With the Red Bull challenge unexpectedly disposed of, Hamilton executed his
decisive lap peerlessly while his Mercedes sidekick Rosberg, who had kept
pace for the first two sectors, was a touch overzealous into the final
corner and went wide causing him to lose three places.
“Every pole is special in its own way, but this one with a new team feels like
the first,” Hamilton reflected.
“I hope it is the first of many.”