Nico Rosberg set a supreme final lap to edge out Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton for pole at the Brazilian Grand Prix and his fifth in a row. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel settled for third place ahead of the Finnish pair of Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen. McLaren had another nightmare session with Button only 17th and Fernando Alonso having to stop trackside for the second time this weekend without setting a lap time.
Qualifying 1
The first session started quietly with no drivers wanting to venture out in the first four minutes but when they did Force India and Williams were first out on the medium tyres. However, Toro Rosso and interestingly Mercedes opted for the softer Pirellis immediately, clearly showing the medium tyres are the preferred rubber for the 71-lap race.
Nico Rosberg became the first man into the 1m11’s this weekend and was soon followed, and beaten, by his teammate Lewis Hamilton. Meanwhile, there were further problems for Fernando Alonso and was told by his team to stop the car without having managed to set a lap time. Alonso will start from the back of the grid.
The Lotus drivers left it late to go out for their one and only run but Maldonado could only manage 15th until Ericsson pipped the Venezuelan to the last place through to the second session. The home favourites Nasr and Massa came close to contact at the end of the session with Massa on a flying lap came across Nasr wandering slowly on the racing line into the penultimate corner forcing Massa off the track. The race stewards will investigate Nasr for impeding Massa after the session.
Alexander Rossi out-qualified his teammate Will Stevens by just over one-tenth of a second in his final race for Manor Marussia this season. The duo will start with Jenson Button just ahead of them and Fernando Alonso behind.
Qualifying 2
The Mercedes pair were first out in the second qualifying session on brand new soft tyres followed by Williams on used softs. Hamilton matched his Q1 time whilst Rosberg was half a second slower due to a few minor errors in the middle sector.
Both Saubers showed good pace running in the top 10 with Nasr ahead of Ericsson but they ultimately dropped out of qualifying once the faster Ferraris and Red Bulls set their quickest times. Vettel split the two Mercedes and was just two tenths slower than Hamilton whilst teammate Raikkonen was fourth.
Romain Grosjean once again went out late in the session to set his time but made an error into turn six which caused him to spin on his flying lap and could only manage 15th. Massa meanwhile climbed into the top 10 and squeezed into the final session as Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez were unable to match their teammates pace and qualified between the Sauber duo in 12th and 13th respectively.
Qualifying 3
Rosberg was much quicker than in the second session and on the first run he was quicker than Hamilton by just under one-tenth of a second mainly due to Hamilton locking up into turn 10. Vettel was third just ahead of Bottas and Raikkonen whilst Verstappen was the only driver to do one run in the final session.
On the final runs, Rosberg set faster sectors and lowered the pole position time to a 1m11.282 whilst Hamilton remained second by just seven-hundredths of a second. The cars behind remained unchanged with Vettel third, Bottas fourth and Raikkonen fifth. Hulkenberg qualified an impressive sixth with Kyvat ahead of home favourite Massa. Ricciardo and Verstappen qualified ninth and tenth.
