Mercedes’s Lewis Hamilton made it two poles in two races after emerging unscathed from an incident-packed Malaysian Grand Prix qualifying yesterday.

The Briton saw off Red Bull’s quadruple champion Sebastian Vettel by 0.055 of a second in a session with two red flags, grid penalties, a 50-minute rain delay and more downpours throughout that left drivers struggling for visibility.

The pole was the 33rd of Hamilton’s career, equalling the British record held by the late Jim Clark since 1964, and was secured in a time of 1:59.431.

“I’m really happy with how well we’ve done over the weekend, but today was incredible, how heavy was the rain?” Hamilton said.

Vettel’s lap was an impressive turnaround for the German, who retired in Melbourne two weeks ago, after he was called back to the pits after only three laps of the first phase of qualifying with an energy store problem.

The champion re-emerged after a reset of the system and became progressively competitive as the rain grew stronger and felt he could have taken pole had he been able to get in another lap in the final 15-minute session.

“At the beginning of Q1 (the first phase), the heartbeat was rising very quickly when we realised there was an issue,” Vettel said.

“Q3 was not perfect. I would have loved to have a second go. My first attempt, I felt there was time to gain here and there.

“It was very close, too close. I should be on the good side for the race but it depends on how good the start is.”

Hamilton’s Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, winner in Australia, will start from third place with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso joining him on the second row despite an earlier collision with Russian rookie Daniil Kvyat’s Toro Rosso that required hurried repairs.

Force India’s Nico Hulkenburg finished seventh with McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen eighth as he and his team chopped and changed with intermediate and wet tyres throughout as they struggled to second guess the weather.

Toro Rosso driver Jean-Eric Vergne and McLaren’s Jenson Button rounded out the top 10 with Williams once again struggling despite some promising pre-season tests.

Felipe Massa will start in 13th while Valtteri Bottas finished 15th but was demoted three places after stewards deemed the Finn blocked Red Bull’s Daniel Ric-ciardo, who qualified fifth, on a flying lap.

Today’s grid at Sepang circuit

1. Hamilton (Mercedes) - 1:59.431
2. Vettel (Red Bull) - 1:59.486
3. Rosberg (Mercedes) - 2:00.050
4. Alonso (Ferrari) - 2:00.175
5. Ricciardo (Red Bull) - 2:00.541
6. Raikkonen (Ferrari) - 2:01.218
7. Hulkenberg (F. India) - 2:01.712
8. Magnussen (McLaren) - 2:02.213
9. Vergne (Toro Rosso) - 2:03.078
10. Button (McLaren) - 2:04.053
11. Kvyat (Toro Rosso) - 2:02.351
12. Gutierrez (Sauber) - 2:02.369
13. Massa (Williams) - 2:02.460
14. Perez (Force India) - 2:02.511
15. Bottas (Williams)* - 2:02.756
16. Grosjean (Lotus) - 2:02.885
17. Maldonado (Lotus) - 2:02.074
18. Sutil (Sauber) - 2:02.131
19. Bianchi (Marussia) - 2:02.702
20. Kobayashi (Caterham) - 2:03.595
21. Chilton (Marussia) - 2:04.388
22. Ericsson (Caterham) - 2:04.407

Note: Bottas demoted three places for blocking during qualifying.