Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg is on form on Saturday afternoon with a fifth consecutive pole position, beating his team-mate Lewis Hamilton at Interlagos.
Rosberg was quicker than Hamilton throughout the important final part of the qualifying, eventually earning the 21st P1 of his Formula 1 career by just 0.078 seconds.
Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari was third fastest, half a second adrift from the top spot, while the Williams of Valtteri Bottas split Vettel from Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen by finding slightly more time on his second run than his fellow countryman.
However, Bottas will take a three-place grid penalty for overtaking under red flags during Friday’s second practice session.
Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top six in his Force India, narrowly quicker than Daniil Kvyat in the best of the Red Bulls.
Felipe Massa, Daniel Ricciardo (running the updated Renault power unit) and Max Verstappen completed the top ten.
Massa and Verstappen hauled themselves into the Q3 shootout with late improvements in Q2, which meant Felipe Nasr’s lap for Sauber was only good enough for P11 on the timesheet.
Carlos Sainz complained of problems with the dashboard and data in his Toro Rosso as he ended up only P12, ahead of the Force India of Sergio Perez, who was a massive 0.662 seconds slower than team-mate Hulkenberg in Q2.
Marcus Ericsson was P14 in the Sauber, followed by the Lotus of Romain Grosjean, who spun at Ferradura on his crucial lap and then had insufficient tyre life left to get anywhere near making the top ten on his next effort.
The Lotus of Pastor Maldonado and Jenson Button’s McLaren were next, narrowly missing out on making the Q2 cut in a tight battle during the first part of qualifying.
Maldonado was just 0.039 seconds slower than Ericsson’s Sauber in placing P16, while Button reckoned McLaren went “a little bit too far with the front wing” as he ended up P17, just 0.040 seconds further back.
Team-mate Fernando Alonso failed to set a time after his McLaren-Honda broke down with “no power” early on in the session.
The double world champion was therefore classified last, behind the Manor Marussias of Alexander Rossi and Will Stevens, who were separated by just over a tenth of a second.
Qualifying positions, Brazilian Grand Prix:
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m11.282s
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m11.360s
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m11.804s
4 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m12.144s
5 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m12.265s
6 Daniil Kvyat Red Bull-Renault 1m12.322s
7 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m12.085s
8 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m12.415s
9 Max Verstappen Toro Rosso-Renault 1m12.739s
10 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1m12.989s
11 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso-Renault 1m13.045s
12 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m13.147s
13 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1m13.233s
14 Romain Grosjean Lotus-Mercedes 1m13.913s
15 Pastor Maldonado Lotus-Mercedes 1m13.385s
16 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1m13.425s
17 Alexander Rossi Marussia-Ferrari 1m16.151s
18 Will Stevens Marussia-Ferrari 1m16.283s
19 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m12.417s
20 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda No time
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