HAMILTON TAKES POLE

Lewis Hamilton has narrowly beaten Mercedes teammateNico Rosberg for pole position in qualifying at the Singapore Grand Prix this afternoon

The 2008 world champion struggled early on, narrowly missing a wall while spinning at the start of the qualifying hour and left it late in Q3, but pulled a quick lap out late on go just seventh-thousandths of a second quicker than the German.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo will start from third after also completing his quickest lap of the day at the end of qualifying to ensure that he starts ahead of teammate Sebastian Vettel.

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was fastest in the first session, but suffered a loss of power in the top 10 shootout, preventing him from getting a flying lap in at the end of the session, leaving him to start from seventh.

1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
2. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
3. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull)
4. Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
5. Fernando Alonso (Ferrari)
6. Felipe Massa (Williams)
7. Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari)
8. Valtteri Bottas (Williams)
9. Kevin Magnussen (McLaren)
10. Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso)
11. Jenson Button (McLaren)
12. Jean-Eric Vergne (Toro Rosso)
13. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India)
14. Esteban Gutierrez (Sauber)
15. Sergio Perez (Force India)
16. Romain Grosjean (Lotus)
17. Adrian Sutil (Sauber)
18. Pastor Maldonado (Lotus)
19. Jules Bianchi (Marussia)
20. Kamui Kobayashi (Caterham)
21. Max Chilton (Marussia)
22. Marcus Ericsso (Caterham)

Michael Schumacher shows “Moments of conscious and awakening”

Michael Schumacher has showed signs of “Moments of conscious and awakening” according to the latest update from his management. Former F1 doctor Gary Hartstein describes today as “a superb day” over at his blog, and writes “Sabine has told us two incredibly important things, things that not only inform us as to where we are, but open up rather more optimistic possibilities than some of the darker options we’ve considered until now, based on not knowing. I want to repeat, because it’s important to fully understand what will follow, that while “wakefulness” and “consciousness” usually are pretty much one and the same, after the brain is injured, the two can be dissociated. What do I mean? Assuming that the terms are being used and translated correctly (and Sabine is a consummate professional and wouldn’t get this wrong), awakening refers to (at least) the appearance of . . . being awake. Basically that means eyes open. And as I mentioned before, this eye opening can even be cyclic, following what looks just like a sleep-wake cycle (even if not synchronised to real day-night hours). Wakefulness WITHOUT consciousness is the definition of a vegetative state. The eyes are open, but there’s no interaction with the environment. If Sabine had “only” said that Michael was showing wakefulness, it would mean that he is not comatose. That in itself is a damned sight “better” than persistent coma, not just in terms of life expectancy, but in terms of the chances of neurologic improvement. But Sabine has also told us that Michael is showing signs of consciousness. My lord, the brain is an amazing organ. And Michael a remarkable man. What does this consciousness probably look like? It consists of episodes of clear, purposeful interaction with the environment, and/or clear signs of awareness of self, even if these signs are not constantly present. For example, if Michael smiles when a member of his entourage talks to him – reproducibly and consistently on at least a few occasions. Or following people with his eyes. Or trying to communicate, or obeying simple commands. Any of this constitutes objective signs of contact between the “outside” and the “inside”. This then would be a minimally conscious state. And that is about the best news we could possibly get right now. Why? Because of what it means for everyone – Michael himself, his loved ones, and his fans. It means that Michael may well see, hear, and feel the love that’s around him. That he is, in some very real way, HERE. It means his life expectancy has now improved VERY significantly. And last, but perhaps most important, it opens up a very real chance for further improvement. This would mean spending more time “in touch” with his surroundings, and also improvement in the quality of the interaction. How incredibly positive! This means rehab, lots of rehab. Michael is used to working hard. Getting that brain to learn new ways of doing things, stimulating it, forcing it to handle data, and all the while working hard to build him up again physically. All very exciting. And very good. Don’t get me wrong – this is a very important step, but we don’t want Michael to stay like this. But this is a very very very big step.

Maldonado hails 'clear step forward'

On the up side, this time around Pastor Maldonado posted a time; on the down side it was only good enough for 17th place on the Malaysian GP grid. Having failed to set a time in qualifying for the Australian GP and then retiring on lap 29, Maldonado has been keen to spot any sign of improvement from Lotus this weekend in Malaysia. And, thankfully for the Venezuelan, there were some. Unlike in Australia, the 29-year-old put his name on the board in qualifying at the Sepang circuit, posting a 2:02.074 to finish 17th, one position behind team-mate Romain Grosjean. "I think it was much better than last weekend," he told the BBC. "It was a clear step forward. We had so many issues yesterday on both cars, but today was much better." And even without Lotus' car and engine troubles, qualifying on Saturday was no easy feat as the rain came down heavily forcing the FIA to delay Q1 by 50 minutes. Once underway, conditions were still difficult for the drivers while a red flag with 35 seconds on the clock put paid to Maldonado's chances of improving. "It was a bit of a lottery in qualifying. We stopped too late so we weren't able to finish lap because of the red flag. I'm a bit disappointed but there are positive things for the team." He now enters Sunday's Malaysian GP hoping to once again see signs of improvement. He added: "Hopefully tomorrow will be good for the team."

Malaysian GP: Bottas hit with grid penalty for impeding Ricciardo

Valtteri Bottas has been given a three-place grid penalty for the Malaysian Grand Prix for impeding Daniel Ricciardo in qualifying. The Red Bull driver complained that he had been blocked by the Williams in Q2. "He was on his out-lap," said Ricciardo of Bottas. "I'll have a word with him. There were a lot of times last year, to be honest... "We raced each other a lot in the junior categories and I thought we had a lot of respect for each other, but it's a little difficult how many times he's done that now." Bottas had been nonplussed by Ricciardo's charge. "I think there was nothing special," said the Finn. "We were both pushing. For me, there was no incident." The penalty will drop Bottas from 15th to 18th on the grid, and he admitted to being surprised at its imposition. "I thought it would be OK and there would be no penalties," he said. "It was a difficult situation - we had a radio problem and in Turn 9 the team told me that I had either a gap in front or behind Ricciardo. "So I thought I would try to stay in front. Obviously he was coming very quickly and it was a bit closer in the last few corners than maybe it should've been. "It didn't cost him anything in the end and I wasn't sure whether he was on a timed lap or not."

Malaysian Grand Prix - Hamilton matches Clark record with Malaysian pole

Lewis Hamilton will start on pole in the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang after coming out on top of rain-soaked session. Sebastian Vettel qualified second, just five hundredths behind, and Nico Rosberg third, making the top three a replica of the front of the grid in Australia two weeks ago. With rain intensifying in the final moments of Q3 it looked as if Rosberg, Vettel and Alonso would all have chances to go quicker - but Rosberg and Alonso both failed to improve their times. Vettel never even got a chance to improve, in the end: a terrible blunder of timing as he tried to wait for a clear track ahead meant that he crossed the start-finish line a few seconds too late, and missed the chance to squeeze in his final flying lap. Hamilton's pole was the 33rd of his career, equalling the British record that had been held by Jim Clark since 1964 - though Clark's poles were earned in just 73 races compared to Hamilton's 131. Fernando Alonso was third fastest with Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo fifth, while Jenson Button finished 10th in Q3 after a gamble on using intermediate tyres backfired on him. Torrential rain left Sepang under several inches of water, delaying the start of the session for almost an hour. But once things got under way, Hamilton was the fastest man on the circuit almost from start to finish as he showed yet again that the Mercedes seems to be the .

Mercedes have discussed team orders in Melbourne

'No team orders' is too simplistic a headline in the intricate world of formula one. Earlier, we reported that dominant Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg's charge for victory this weekend would be unfettered by team play. "We are going to try and avoid such measures," German Rosberg said, while chairman Niki Lauda added: "They can race against each other". But when also asked on Friday if 'conversations' about team orders have taken place behind closed doors in Melbourne, team director Toto Wolff admitted: "Yes, we had those conversations, and I think it's important to have those conversations." Wolff said Hamilton and Rosberg are not only fast but "very intelligent". "They treat each other in a very fair way. We went through some scenarios and I think we're in a good place," he added. So what exactly does that mean? Last year, Rosberg was unhappy when he was ordered to stay in third place behind Hamilton in Malaysia. "We got caught out by surprise last year," Wolff said at Albert Park, "and we don't want this to happen again. It's just very good discussions we've had." So, Wolff suggested to Germany's Bild newspaper that the pair will not necessarily have a free hand to go wheel-to-wheel in Melbourne. "Their first opponents are not their teammates, but everyone else," he said. "We have explained to them how to respond in more than two dozen scenarios, for example if one of them is ahead but suddenly has a fuel problem. They have to be clear what to do."

Lewis Hamilton on Australia pole, with Sebastian Vettel down in 13th

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton grabbed a last-ditch pole position in a thrilling wet qualifying session at the Australian Grand Prix. Hamilton edged out Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo by 0.317 seconds with the very last lap of the session. Ricciardo's world champion team-mate Sebastian Vettel was only 13th. Hamilton's team-mate Nico Rosberg took third ahead of an impressive debut from McLaren's Kevin Magnussen in fourth and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso in fifth. It was an exhilarating way to start a new season that has seen the introduction of the biggest rule changes in F1 for a generation. Red Bull's recovery from a troubled pre-season programme has been impressive but Vettel was not the beneficiary. The German, who has won the last four world championships, had a scrappy qualifying session. It was the first time he had failed to make it into the top 10 shoot-out since the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix. Vettel pitted towards the end of the second session for a fresh set of intermediate tyres, hoping to benefit from their increased grip on the slippery track. But while Ricciardo, who stayed out on track on his tyres, finished the session second fastest behind Rosberg, Vettel could not improve.