Lewis Hamilton set the quickest time during an eventful qualifying session for Formula 1’s Brazilian Grand Prix.
Hamilton posted a time of 1:07.301 during the first Q3 runs as lingering showers largely stayed away from Interlagos, before improving his time to a 1:07.281, to provisionally take Mercedes 100th F1 pole position, and his 10th of the campaign.
Hamilton wound up as the quickest driver though escaped a dramatic moment in Q2 when he moved off-line just as the rapidly-approaching Sergey Sirotkin dinked the same way.
Sirotkin, preparing an out lap at the time, almost took to the grass on the section between Mergulho and Juncao.
Stewards have not yet confirmed whether the incident will be investigated.
Sebastian Vettel finished second to Hamilton, but he faces an enquiry within the hour after he destroyed the FIA’s weighbridge during Q2.
Vettel was called to the weighbridge as Ferrari pitted the German, along with team-mate Kimi Raikkonen, after an out lap in order to switch from Supersofts to Softs, with the team diverging from Mercedes’ tyre strategy.
Vettel gestured to the FIA to hurry the process due to the threat of impending rain.
Technical delegate Jo Bauer deemed that Vettel “refused to turn off the engine. The car was pushed onto the scales and weighed with running engine, which makes it difficult to get a stable result.
“After weighing the driver drove off the scales under its own power, and by doing so, he destroyed the scales.
“As the driver was not following the instructions and further compromised the continuation of the weighing procedure.”
Last year’s polesitter Valtteri Bottas was third for Mercedes, with compatriot Raikkonen in fourth.
Red Bull took fifth and sixth, with Max Verstappen edging Daniel Ricciardo, though the Australian will drop five places due to a turbo change.
That means Marcus Ericsson is poised to start from the third row of the grid as Sauber enjoyed a strong display.
Charles Leclerc, having been in the Q2 drop zone, disobeyed an instruction from his team to come into the pits as drizzle fell during the closing stages.
As others failed to improve Leclerc hauled himself up from 11th to secure a Q3 spot, and classified eighth, which will become seventh due to Ricciardo’s sanction.
Haas’ Romain Grosjean and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10.
The light rain that fell during Q2 meant the first part of the session proved crucial – outside of Leclerc’s superb late effort.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen held a Q3 spot until Leclerc’s late stunner and was shuffled down to 11th, ahead of Force India pair Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon.
Ocon will drop five places on the grid due to making an unscheduled gearbox change.
Nico Hulkenberg, eight years on from his shock pole, was 14th, as Sirotkin finished at the foot of the Q2 runners.
Droplets fell during the closing stages of Q1 but drivers were still able to clock competitive times on dry tyres throughout the session.
Renault’s Carlos Sainz Jr. missed out by just 0.005s in a close denouement to the session, while birthday boy Brendon Hartley also dropped out in Q1, taking 17th spot.
McLaren endured another dismal display as Fernando Alonso, contesting his likely penultimate Grand Prix, was 18th, with Stoffel Vandoorne at the rear of the field, the pair split by Williams’ Lance Stroll.
Vandoorne has not escaped Q1 since June’s Canadian Grand Prix.
Sunday’s 71-lap Brazilian Grand Prix is scheduled for 15:10 local time
