The German was joined on the front row of the grid by reigning world champion and closest rival Lewis Hamilton, in a Mercedes.
Former world champions Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button are among six drivers hit with a plethora of penalties on the grid for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes stormed to pole position with a scorching lap in qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix as title rival Sebastian Vettel was left stranded in the garage and will start dead last.
Troubled business tycoon Vijay Mallya, on Sunday, asserted that his stepping down as chairman of the United Spirits Ltd will not affect his control in Formula One team, Sahara Force India.
The 18-year-old completed 65 laps with a best time exactly three seconds slower than Ralf Schumacher.
'I think the team's getting stronger, pushing very hard. I think people are fired up and we are motivated for tomorrow'
Fernando Alonso believes his McLaren team could have the best chassis in Formula One before long this year but the Spaniard also sees no end to champions Mercedes' domination after pounding out the laps in testing.
Australian Daniel Ricciardo won the Chinese Grand Prix for Red Bull on Sunday while Ferrari's championship leader Sebastian Vettel finished only eighth.
'I'm so grateful for everyone who helped me be here, to raise the bar and lift the cup'
The government on Friday approved 34 foreign direct investment proposals worth Rs 30.98 crore (Rs 309.8 million).
India's shuttlers continued their good run at the Canada Open. Six singles players, including Ajay Jayaram and H S Prannoy, qualified for the quarter-finals in the US $55,000 Grand Prix badminton tournament, in Calgary.
Triple world champion Lewis Hamilton has warned that Formula One's new cars, while better looking and thrilling to drive, may not do much for the racing when the season starts in Australia on March 26.
The last time Kimi Raikkonen stood on top of a Formula One podium, Lewis Hamilton had just joined Mercedes with one championship to his name and Sebastian Vettel was riding high with Red Bull.
Before the start, Hamilton had spoken of Hungary fast becoming one of his favourite circuits.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton has recognised a fashion faux pas and assured Wimbledon he will respect the dress code next year.
"It was a really bad accident, pretty unlucky," Perez told reporters of his crash at the Hungaroring.
Mercedes's brilliant pitstop strategy spoiled the game for Max Verstappen in Hungarian Grand Prix, says Rediff's F1 columnist Raja Sen.
The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by Vijay Mallya to overturn charges against him for allegedly violating foreign exchange rules, adding to the legal challenges facing one of the country's most prominent businessmen.
Borussia Dortmund stayed top of the Bundesliga by beating Augsburg 4-3, while titleholders Bayern Munich were thumped 3-0 at home by Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Lewis Hamilton refused to take questions from the media after qualifying second for Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix due to "disrespectful" criticism of his behaviour during a news conference two days ago.
Max Verstappen won Red Bull's home Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday while Lewis Hamilton suffered his first race retirement since 2016 and lost the Formula One championship lead to Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.
This is the German's 50th career win
Lewis Hamilton took pole position at the Italian Grand Prix for the third year in a row on Saturday with Mercedes team mate and title rival Nico Rosberg joining the Briton on the front row of the grid.
Hamilton, Bottas's team mate, started in eighth place after a grid penalty triggered by an unscheduled gearbox change and finished fourth.
Formula One's post-season shake-up took another spin on Tuesday with Williams announcing the departure of technical head Pat Symonds while Valtteri Bottas moved closer to Mercedes and Felipe Massa's retirement looked to be coming to an end.
Ferrari are closer to Mercedes than results have suggested in this season's two races and look like posing a real challenge, according to Formula One world championship leader Nico Rosberg.
Lewis Hamilton lost a battle but regained a rival after Sebastian Vettel won Sunday's Australian season-opener for Ferrari.
The Formula One team will try out the sons of former champions Nelson Piquet and Keke Rosberg next week.
Niki Lauda pondered the mystery of the disappearing Mercedes on Sunday after Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg finished one-two in the Japanese Grand Prix but barely featured in television coverage.
The Indian ace was given the honour after Carlin's top driver Alan van der Merwe opted out.
Jenson Button hailed Honda's latest power unit as a good step forward for McLaren after completing 121 laps and finishing fifth fastest on the second day of Formula One's final pre-season test on Wednesday.
The most successful current racer, in terms of wins if not titles, Hamilton can also equal seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher's all-time record of 68 pole positions at Spa on Saturday.
On a rainsoaked afternoon that saw the race twice stopped and re-started with the safety car deployed five times, there were also those who felt the sport had erred too far on the side of caution.
Max Verstappen was compared to Formula One greats Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher on Sunday after the Dutch teenager's sensational drive to third place in a wet and chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix. Even father and former racer Jos, the 19-year-old Red Bull driver's biggest fan and fiercest critic, was astonished. "What Max showed here today was really special," he said of a race likely to go down in the sport's annals as one for the ages. In the last 15 laps, after a change to extreme wet tyres, Verstappen passed more than half the starting grid as he went from 16th place to the podium.
Red Bull's quadruple World champion Sebastian Vettel won the US Grand Prix on Sunday to become the first Formula One driver to take eight consecutive victories in a single season. Starting from pole, the 26-year-old German was again in a class of his own, taking the chequered flag 6.2 seconds clear of Frenchman Romain Grosjean in a Lotus.
French driver Esteban Ocon will race for Force Indianext season after agreeing a multi-year deal, the Silverstone-based Formula One team said in a statement at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Thursday. Ocon replaces experienced German Nico Hulkenberg, who is moving to Renault, alongside Mexican Sergio Perez at a team co-owned by Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya and currently fourth in the championship. The 20-year-old is contracted long-term to Mercedes, Force India's engine provider, and made his debut this year with the lowly Manor team as a mid-season replacement for Indonesian Rio Haryanto.
Force India finished sixth in 2014 but spent much of last season calling for cost cuts.
Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel refused to blame his team for a wrong strategy call after the four time World Champion missed out on an elusive first win of the Formula One season in Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix.
Paul di Resta suffered his third retirement in a row and Adrian Sutil sneaked into the top-10 in the last lap as Sahara Force India added one point to their tally from the exciting Singapore Grand Prix, where fortunes swung like a pendulum for the Indian F1 team.
Formula One world championship leader Sebastian Vettel won the Bahrain Grand Prix for Ferrari on Sunday in the German's 200th race start.