Lewis Hamilton is poised to keep his championship alive after beating Nico Rosberg to pole for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
In a session that could prove crucial in the world championship, the Brit, who has topped all but one session this weekend, beat Rosberg by just a tenth of a second.
At a circuit the ace has never won, Hamilton drew first blood in the final qualifying session ahead of Rosberg, but just 0.164s separated them after their first Q3 runs, and that margin came down to 0.102s in the final run.
Behind the Mercedes, Kimi Raikkonen pipped Max Verstappen to start 3rd on the grid. The Ferrari driver’s fastest time was 0.668s off pole position.
Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Ricciardo will start fifth and sixth respectively just ahead of Romain Grosjean. The Frenchman’s sole run in Q3 was good enough for seventh place on the grid.
The Force India duo of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg recovered from a shaky Q2 to qualify eighth and seventh respectively, with Fernando Alonso rounding out the top 10.
A threat of rain was in the air at the start of the qualifying hour. It was the Mercedes drivers who came out of the garage first and were immediately half a second quicker than what any other team could produce.
Hamilton topped the times in the first two qualifying sessions, edging out teammate Rosberg who remained in touching distance throughout.
Sebastian Vettel had a pre-qualifying scare. The German’s Ferrari was being frantically worked on in the build-up preceding the session due to a hydraulic issue. However, the problem was rectified and he managed to set a time good enough to proceed to Q2.
Q1 saw a frustrated Button fall to the wayside, the McLaren driver was joined by Magnusson, both Manors and both Saubers.
Jolyon Palmer shined in the first part of qualifying. The Brit, fresh from renewing his contract with Renault, was eighth fastest in Q1, but a lockup filled lap in Q2 meant the best the Brit could do was 16th on the grid.
The Force Indias of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg made a relatively late charge in Q2 to just squeak into the top 10, knocking out both Williams.
Romain Grosjean put in a stunning lap to get into the top 10 shootout, whilst his teammate Gutierrez will start 12th on the grid.
