Lewis Hamilton dominated qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix, taking pole position at the Sepang International Circuit.
The British driver claimed his fourth pole in Malaysia despite backing off on his final lap. His first attempt with a 1m32.850 proved to be good enough.
It was also the fastest ever lap at the Sepang International Circuit since 2005, giving him his eighth pole of 2016 and the 100th front row start of his career.
His Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg was four tenths behind in second place, after recovering from a messy opening lap in Q3. Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo were third and fourth for Red Bull.
Sebastian Vettel moved ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in the final moments, with Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg, Jenson Button and Felipe Massa completing the top 10.
Valtteri Bottas failed to improve on his last Q2 lap and ended the session in 11th, the first driver with free tyre choice for the race.
Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez also missed out on Q3, with Kevin Magnussen, Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz Jr. completing the drop-zone.
The Sauber duo of Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr were the first drivers to be eliminated in Q1 after falling into the drop-zone in the final moments of the session.
They joined the Renault of Jolyon Palmer and the two Manor drivers, with Esteban Ocon beating his team-mate Pascal Wehrlein.
With a 45-place grid penalty for various engine component changes, Fernando Alonso only made a brief appearance in Q1 on the medium tyre and rounded out the order.
