Niki Lauda says Lewis Hamilton's pole lap for the Malaysian Grand Prix was down to his skill as a driver rather than the tweaks Mercedes made to his car ahead of qualifying.
Mercedes headed into qualifying on the back foot, having struggled with balance and set-up problems throughout all three practice sessions in Sepang. The team split its set-up for final practice, and continued that approach for qualifying, with Valtteri Bottas running an updated aero package and Hamilton reverting back to the older spec W08.
With Vettel out of qualifying in Q1 following an issue with his engine, Hamilton took full advantage to claim the 70th pole position of his career -- and his fifth in Malaysia -- with an impressive lap, pipping the sole remaining Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen by just 0.045s. The Briton's lap time was also 0.7s faster than teammate Bottas.
When asked if Mercedes understood why its new aero package did not appear to be working as well as the older one, Lauda told Sky Sports F1: "We do not know, therefore we had one car like this and the other like this, but this again was a Lewis lap.
"It's very difficult to identify what's wrong with the car, but when Lewis puts the throttle down he does it very well, so I think it's more the driver here than the car to be honest."
Mercedes' job was made easier by Vettel's engine troubles in Q1 which eliminated him from qualifying, leaving the German set to start Sunday's race from the very back of the grid. Despite Vettel's issues, Lauda was at a loss to explain how Mercedes managed to turn around its performance overnight.
"I don't know [how] but we did it. It was very close with Kimi [Raikkonen] but Vettel, poor guy, couldn't qualify unfortunately, but for us a fantastic result. For Lewis it was made easier, but nevertheless you have to finish the race first, so let's wait and see."