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
Nico Rosberg swept to his fifth successive pole position on Saturday with Mercedes team mate and triple Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton qualifying alongside on the Brazilian Grand Prix front row.
The German again denied Hamilton, who won his third championship in Texas last month with three races to spare, a 50th career pole, this time by a mere 0.078 on a sunny afternoon at Interlagos.
“I’m just thinking about the individual races. I’m here, I want to win,” said Rosberg who won from pole in Brazil last season.
“It’s always better to finish on a high than a low, for this season and also thinking about next year,” he added, describing his last lap as “very close to the edge”.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel qualified third and will be joined on the second row by team mate Kimi Raikkonen because Williams driver Valtteri Bottas, who was fourth fastest, has a three-place grid penalty.
Hamilton has so far tried and failed eight times to win in Brazil, the home of his late boyhood idol and triple champion Ayrton Senna, and faces another tough battle on Sunday even if his chances remain good.
Four of the last six winners in Brazil have started in second place.
“My main job this year is done,” said the 30-year-old Briton when asked how much victory in Brazil mattered to him.
“It was good today actually. I got a really good balance with the car,” added Hamilton who had been fastest in Saturday’s final practice despite having problems with the gearbox and spinning.
“It is a circuit I haven’t won at. Last year I was stronger in the race and I hope to carry that through and hopefully make the difference.”
Despite his recent dominance in qualifying, Rosberg has only managed to convert one of his previous four poles into victory, the most recent in Mexico.
Hamilton won the other three races before that and now has 10 victories for the season to his team mate’s four.
“A sensational lap from Lewis and an unbelievably immense lap from Nico at the very end, similar to his performance in Mexico. He’s on fire,” Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff told the BBC.
“It’s clear that it’s important for him to finish second in the championship and for Lewis maybe some of the pressure has gone,” added the Austrian.
Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg and Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat will share the third row, with the Williams pair of Bottas and Brazilian Felipe Massa behind them.
Daniel Ricciardo was ninth fastest for Red Bull but has a 10-place penalty for an engine change to the latest upgraded Renault power unit.
“From what I saw during the session it wasn’t worth it,” said the Australian of the switch.
“Let’s say we had to try it, we had nothing to lose. But at the moment it honestly hasn’t given us anything we’re after.”
Further back, McLaren’s former world champions Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button sought refuge in humour after another dismal qualifying.
Alonso was told to pull over and park in the first phase of qualifying due to ongoing problems with the Honda power unit. The Spaniard did so and then sat trackside on a foldable picnic chair, sunning himself and winking at the cameras.
“In Abu Dhabi (in two weeks) I will have to be better prepared and bring the suntan lotion,” he said, having had a similar failure in Friday practice.
After Button also failed to make the cut, the pair sneaked onto the podium for a quick photograph.
Source: Reuters
The most amusing moment in qualifying was when Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button appeared on the podium. Formula1.com provides the story.
Fernando Alonso joked that he and McLaren team mate Jenson Button made an impromptu visit to the Interlagos podium on Saturday because it was the closest either will get to a Grand Prix rostrum in 2015.
Alonso was an early casualty in qualifying at the Brazilian circuit, pulling to a halt with engine issues early in Q1. The Spaniard spent the rest of the session trackside, at one point taking the opportunity to catch some sun, before heading back to the pits, apparently in good spirits. Button was at least able to complete Q1, but was also eliminated in 17th place.
“We saw the podium that close, and we said we will not be this close any more, so let’s take a picture at least and we have a memory for this year,” Alonso told reporters in the paddock.
“Hopefully March will be the real podium.”
Asked whether there was any frustration alongside his humour, Alonso added: “Unfortunately a lot of frustration. We need to fix many problems on the reliability side. Next year all these problems, all these mistakes, we need to learn from them and not make them anymore.”
Button, meanwhile, said his trip to the podium was the highlight of his weekend, although he insisted there were still positives to find from the team’s performance.
“We thought we would jump on the podium – it’s been a while for both of us,” he said. “It was a lot of fun – the most I’ve had all weekend.
“[The next podium] is not going to be over the next two weekends, I can assure you. But it has been much better this weekend. I think I was 0.05s off getting though [to Q2] – and it’s definitely set up for the race.
“I’m a positive person. So much will change this winter – it will be a massive step.”
Sauber’s Felipe Nasr has been penalised three grid places for the start of his home race after stewards found the Brazilian guilty of blocking compatriot Felipe Massa during Saturday’s qualifying session at Interlagos.
On a slow lap, Nasr baulked the flying Williams driver in Turn 11 during Q1. Both men nonetheless progressed to Q2, with Nasr eventually qualifying 11th, and Massa eighth. With other penalties taken into account, Nasr is now set to start from 13th on the provisional grid.
Two other drivers head into the race with grid drops – Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo was penalised 10 places for an unscheduled engine change, whilst Williams’ Valtteri Bottas was demoted three after he overtook under red flags during Friday practice.
The provisional grid now reads: Rosberg, Hamilton; Vettel, Raikkonen; Hulkenberg, Kvyat; Bottas, Massa; Verstappen, Sainz; Perez, Ericsson; Nasr, Grosjean; Maldonado, Button; Rossi, Stevens; Ricciardo, Alonso.
Source: Formula1.com