Hamilton takes pole with track record at Interlagos, Vettel keeps P2 after weigh-in contretemps; Bottas starts P3

Newly crowned 2018 F1 Champion Lewis Hamilton followed up his title-clinching but so-so P4 run in Mexico two weeks ago with a more Hamiltonian effort, setting a new lap record at Autodromo José Carlos Pace for pole in Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s Brazilian Grand Prix. Showing that he is still driven to perform at the highest level even after seizing his remarkable fifth Drivers’ title, the English superstar once again got the better of his season-long pursuer Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari, laying down a hot lap of 1:07.281 for the best-ever time at Interlagos, albeit a mere .09 ahead his German rival. Once again it was Vettel looking up at Hamilton on the leaderboard, a depressing reality for both the man and the team. In truth, Vettel was lucky to retain his P2 starting position after some confusion at the weighbridge during a rain-threatened Q2 that saw Vettel hurrying the officials along in a desperate attempt to get to his pits for fresh rubber before the deluge screwed up his session. Vettel was accused of not shutting down his engine as required by the rules and “destroying the scales” by motoring away rather than being push started. Then again Hamilton also dodged the stewards’ wrath after dawdling in front of a fast-approaching Williams of Sergey Sirotkin in Q2, which very nearly led to a dangerous collision but for the lightening reflexes of the Russian rookie.

Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas secured P3 on the grid and he will line up aside Vettel’s Scuderia stablemate Kimi Raikkonen, who had the fourth fastest qualifying time. Ferrari may have some extra strategic cards to play come race day, however, in a last ditch effort to hold off the Silver Arrows from capturing the Constructors’ title, at least for another week. The Ferrari braintrust rather cleverly put their men onto the Soft Pirelli tires to set their fastest laps in that hectic Q2, meaning that both Prancing Horses will start on what should be the longer lasting rubber to start the race, while Mercedes will begin on the nominally faster but also faster degrading Super Soft rubber.

The Red Bull’s of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo couldn’t quite match the straight-line speed of the top 4 on this very short circuit and qualified P5 and P6 respectively. The snakebit Ricciardo is facing a 5 spot penalty for changing a turbo unit after the marshals in Mexico destroyed his while putting out an engine fire during his DNF there. Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson out-qualified his more heralded teammate Charles Leclerc P7 to P8 in their first matchup since the Swede announced he would be headed to indyCar next year rather than continue on as a demoted third driver for Sauber. Ericsson will join the Schmidt Peterson team in 2019, taking the place of the injured Robert Wickens, who was paralyzed after a vicious airborne accident at Pocono earlier this year.

Rounding out the Top 10, Haas’ Romain Grosjean qualified in P9 and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly set the tenth fastest lap.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Brazilian Grand Prix:

Complete qualifying results available via Fomula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live starting at Noon Eastern on ESPN2 here in the States.