Brazilian GP: Hamilton beats Rosberg to pole at Interlagos

Hamilton needed to improve with his final lap of the session to keep Rosberg's challenge at bay, having set the pace throughout the knock-out sessions.

Kimi Raikkonen will start third for Ferrari, unleashing an impressive final lap to beat Red Bull's Max Verstappen and the second Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo will start sixth, and was over 0.8s off the pace.

Story of the top-10 shootout

Hamilton threw down the gauntlet with a first run of 1m10.860s, that Rosberg failed to beat by 0.162s on 1m11.022s.

When asked if he wanted to change rear tyre pressures ahead of the second run, to cure his understeer, Rosberg replied: "Traction is not great either, so I'm a bit worried about that."

Verstappen was third quickest after the first runs, just 0.01s ahead of Vettel, with Ricciardo 0.045s further back. Raikkonen was over three quarters of a second off the pace in sixth.

In the second runs, Rosberg beat Hamilton's fastest first sector time by a tenth, but lost out through the second and third sectors.

Hamilton improved to 1m10.736s as Rosberg managed 1m10.838s, quicker than Hamilton's first-run time but 0.102s shy of his final run.

Raikkonen grabbed third on his final lap, ahead of Verstappen, Vettel and Ricciardo.

Romain Grosjean was an impressive best of the rest for Haas, ahead of the Force Indias of Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez. Fernando Alonso will start 10th for McLaren.

Williams turfed out in Q2

Williams's local hero Felipe Massa was in the drop zone after the first runs, then briefly went ninth on his final flyer. But he was dumped way out of the top 10 by Hulkenberg, Perez and Grosjean.

"Everything was different after that first run, I don't know why," said Massa, who will start his final Brazilian GP from 13th.

His Williams teammate Valtteri Bottas was also demoted out of the top 10, by just 0.06s thanks to Hulkenberg. Esteban Gutierrez will start 12th for Haas F1.

Behind Massa, the Toro Rossos of Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz qualified 14th and 15th respectively. Renault's Jolyon Palmer will start 16th after a "really scruffy lap" with three major lockups.

Hamilton set the pace in this session with a lap of 1m11.238s, 0.135s quicker than Rosberg's 1m11.373s. The Mercedes were over half a second clear of Verstappen, who was best of the rest.

Vettel had a big moment at Juncao on his first flying lap. "Messed up the last corner," he said. "Struggling with [the] fronts in Turn 4 and last corner."

The top 10 will all start on the soft tyre, having set their best times on that compound in this session.

Button falls at Q1 hurdle

Jenson Button, who'd been complaining of understeer from his McLaren in FP3, ran wide at Pinheirinho on his quickest lap, which was 0.017s down on Palmer.

"I had a snap oversteer of then understeer," he complained. He then locked up entering the Senna S on his final attempt, and failed to improve.

Button will start 17th, ahead of Renault's Kevin Magnussen, the Manors of Pascal Wehrlein and Esteban Ocon, and the Saubers of Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr.

With the threat of rain showers looming, many cars ran right from the start of the session. Hamilton's first flyer on fresh softs was 1m11.511s, despite catching Ricciardo's Red Bull at the end of the lap, three tenths clear of Rosberg.

After a pre-session panic to remedy a hydraulics problem, Vettel emerged with plenty of time to spare to progress via the top five overall.

Ocon was placed under investigation by stewards after the session for an incident with Palmer at Turn 4.

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Engine	Time	Gap
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	Mercedes	1'10.736
2	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	Mercedes	1'10.838	0.102
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	Ferrari	1'11.404	0.668
4	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	TAG	1'11.485	0.749
5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	Ferrari	1'11.495	0.759
6	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	TAG	1'11.540	0.804
7	Romain Grosjean	Haas	Ferrari	1'11.937	1.201
8	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India	Mercedes	1'12.104	1.368
9	Sergio Perez	Force India	Mercedes	1'12.165	1.429
10	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	Honda	1'12.266	1.530
11	Valtteri Bottas	Williams	Mercedes	1'12.420	1.684
12	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas	Ferrari	1'12.431	1.695
13	Felipe Massa	Williams	Mercedes	1'12.521	1.785
14	Daniil Kvyat	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	1'12.726	1.990
15	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Toro Rosso	Ferrari	1'12.920	2.184
16	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	Renault	1'13.258	2.522
17	Jenson Button	McLaren	Honda	1'13.276	2.540
18	Kevin Magnussen	Renault	Renault	1'13.410	2.674
19	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor	Mercedes	1'13.427	2.691
20	Esteban Ocon	Manor	Mercedes	1'13.432	2.696
21	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	Ferrari	1'13.623	2.887
22	Felipe Nasr	Sauber	Ferrari	1'13.681	2.945