Nico Rosberg swept to his fifth successive pole position yesterday 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 today 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.

Ten victories

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.”

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,” he said.

“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 had another dismal qualifying.

Alonso was told to pull over and park in the first phase of qualifying due to problems to his power unit while Button failed to make the cut.

Brazilian Grand Prix grid