Nico Rosberg will start the field tomorrow in São Paulo.
The driver of the No. 6 Mercedes AMG Petronas car won his fifth straight pole with a time of 71.282 and a speed of 135.198 mph. He said afterwards that qualifying was “an area that I had to work on, so I have been working on it through the season. But I don’t have a direct explanation, a precise thing I’ve done different.”
Teammate Lewis Hamilton will start second with a time of 71.360 and a speed of 135.051 mph. Asked if not being on pole since Monza concerned the 2015 champion, he simply said “no” and that his “main job is done this year. I have the most poles of the year and I won the world championship, so there’s nothing really to read into this. You don’t always get it right. You can’t get it perfect every single time.”
It shouldn’t shock anyone that it was a Mercedes on pole. They’ve taken the top spot in qualifying in all but one race this season. Sebastian Vettel was the only other driver to be on pole this season when he took it in Singapore.
Speaking of Vettel, the four time world champion placed his No. 5 Scuderia Ferrari in third with a time of 71.804 and a speed of 134.215 mph. Valtteri Bottas finished his No. 77 Williams Martini Racing Mercedes in fourth with a time of 72.085 and a speed of 133.692 mph. He was handed a three-place grid penalty for overtaking Felipe Nasr under red-flag conditions in free practice 2. Kimi Räikönen rounded out the top-five in his No. 7 Scuderia Ferrari with a time of 72.144 and a speed of 133.583 mph.
Nico Hülkenberg qualified sixth. Daniil Kvyat qualified seventh. Felipe Massa qualified eighth. Daniel Ricciardo qualified ninth. He was handed a 10-place grid penalty for his team going over the five engine change limit for the season. Max Verstappen rounded out the top-10.
