Germany’s Nico Rosberg chalked up his 10th pole position of the season yesterday after beating team-mate Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes sweep of the front row in Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying.

Rosberg seized the top spot with a lap just 0.033 of a second quicker than world championship leader Hamilton, who will be chasing his 11th win of the season in today’s race at Interlagos.

The Briton leads Rosberg by 24 points with two races, and a maximum 75 points, remaining.

The pole came as no surprise, with Rosberg quicker than Hamilton in every practice session and every phase of qualifying.

Complimented on his “perfect job”, the German quickly replied: “Perfect job only if it works out tomorrow (today). I need to make it happen in the race, unlike Austin.

“I have learned from Austin, I know what I need to do better so from that point of view, I look forward to the race.”

The German was on pole last weekend in the United States Grand Prix in Texas but Hamilton won the race, his fifth success in a row, after an audacious pass on his team-mate.

“Nico did a good lap,” said Hamilton, who need only finish second in the last two races to be sure of his second championship.

“I lost a bit of time in turn 10 and maybe a tiny bit in turn one...it’s a long race tomorrow and I want to win.”

Brazilian Felipe Massa qualified in third place with Williams team-mate Valtteri Bottas fourth.

McLaren’s Jenson Button will line up fifth today, the first five places all filled by Mercedes-powered cars.

“It’s very emotional to be here in Brazil and have a competitive car,” said Massa, whose last victory came at Interlagos in 2008 when he missed out on the title to Hamilton by a single point.

“I didn’t use everything I could from the car, I got a lot of traffic on my last run and there were also problems in the garage and I couldn’t improve my lap time.”

Mercedes have already won the constructors championship and are sure of the drivers’ crown, with only their pairing remaining in contention.

Red Bull’s quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel was the best of the non-Mercedes drivers with sixth place ahead of McLaren’s Kevin Magnussen and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso.

Daniel Ricciardo, for Red Bull, and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen filled out the top 10.

Brazilian GP starting grid

1. Nico Rosberg (Germany) Mercedes 1:10.023
2. Lewis Hamilton (Britain) Mercedes 1:10.056
3. Felipe Massa (Brazil) Williams-Mercedes 1:10.247
4. Valtteri Bottas (Finland) Williams-Mercedes 1:10.305
5. Jenson Button (Britain) McLaren 1:10.930
6. Sebastian Vettel (Germany) Red Bull - Renault 1:10.938
7. Kevin Magnussen (Denmark) McLaren 1:10.969
8. Fernando Alonso (Spain) Ferrari 1:10.977
9. Daniel Ricciardo (Australia) Red Bull - Renault 1:11.075
10. Kimi Raikkonen (Finland) Ferrari 1:11.099
   
11. Esteban Gutierrez (Mexico) Sauber - Ferrari 1:11.591
12. Nico Huelkenberg (Germany) Force India - Mercedes 1:11.976
13. Adrian Sutil (Germany) Sauber - Ferrari 1:12.099
14. Daniil Kvyat (Russia) Toro Rosso - Renault no time
   
15. Romain Grosjean (France) Lotus - Renault 1:12.037
16. Jean-Eric Vergne (France) Toro Rosso - Renault 1:12.040
17. Sergio Perez (Mexico) Force India - Mercedes 1:12.076
18. Pastor Maldonado (Venezuela) Lotus - Renault 1:12.233

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