Can Lewis Hamilton get one over Vettel in Malaysia?

Is Lewis is more fired up than ever?

What a great qualifying session that was for the Malaysia Grand Prix, and in particular Q3 – the shoot out for pole position. Lewis Hamilton was so close to taking his first top slot since last years Canadian Grand Prix, but it was literally stolen like candy from a baby by Sebastian Vettel at the last gasp.

When Lewis crossed the line with a time of 1m34.974, British fans were almost certain that his super human lap was enough to peg back the dominant Red Bull’s. But less than a minute later, Sebastian Vettel showed just how good he really is and beat Hamilton's time by just over a tenth of a second.

McLaren believe Lewis lost over a tenth of a second on his final flying lap, meaning he could technically match Vettel’s one lap pace. This is a phenomenal achievement when you take into account the eight tenths gap in Melbourne's Q3, 2 weeks ago.

But rather than showing elation at being so close to the Red Bull pace, Hamilton cut a disappointed figure in the press conference in Sepang. He is so determined to get on top of the Red Bull’s that he believes (to quote Ayrton Senna) "Coming second is being first of the losers". It hopefully means we are in for a great race on Sunday. What a dream top 4 grid combination: Red Bull, McLaren, Red Bull, McLaren. The drag to turn 1 in Sepang is long which allows for slip streaming. I can’t think of 4 better cars and drivers I’d like to see do battle that first lap.

There’s every chance Vettel might get a great start and dominate the race, let’s not kid ourselves. But if Lewis Hamilton has anything to do with it, he’ll push Seb to the absolute limit and make him work twice as hard for the victory. These are my two favourite drivers in Formula 1 right now so to see them do battle is a perfect scenario.

Can Lewis beat Sebastian tomorrow? Who will you be supporting?

Posted by James Wilson. - Follow him on twitter @enterf1.

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