Rosberg takes fifth pole in a row by 0.078s

Nico Rosberg took his fifth consecutive pole position by beating team-mate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.078s at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

With the two Mercedes drivers having been closely matched all weekend, Rosberg delivered an impressive final lap to continue a run of pole positions stretching back to the Japanese Grand Prix in September. Hamilton also improved on his last attempt but had left himself too much to do after failing to match Rosberg's first sector time.

Sebastian Vettel will start from third place after emerging as a potential threat for pole position in Q2, splitting the Mercedes before ending the final part of qualifying half a second adrift of Rosberg. It will be an all-Ferrari second row as although Valtteri Bottas beat fellow Finn Kimi Raikkonen to fourth place, the Williams driver has a three-place grid penalty and will start from seventh.

Nico Hulkenberg was an impressive sixth for Force India on the track where he took his only pole position to date so far in 2010, and he will make up row three alongside Daniil Kvyat. Felipe Massa will start one place behind team-mate Bottas eighth, with Daniel Ricciardo a mere 0.002s behind Massa in ninth place. However, Max Verstappen will start ninth as Ricciardo has a ten-place grid penalty for an engine change.

Massa almost failed to make it through to the final part of qualifying after a relatively poor lap left him in tenth place in Q2, but a spin from Romain Grosjean at Turn 7 ensured the Lotus driver could not threaten for Q3 as he dropped out with the slowest time having flat-spotted his tyres. With Felipe Nasr - who had blocked Massa in Q1 - dropping out in 11th place, a late lap from Carlos Sainz threatened to disappoint the home fans but the Spaniard could only finish 12th.

Sergio Perez was a surprising 0.7s slower than team-mate Hulkenberg as he failed to progress in 13th ahead of Marcus Ericsson in the second Sauber and Grosjean.

It was a familiar story for Fernando Alonso early in Q1 as he was told to "stop immediately" after suffering a loss of power, forcing him to pull off the track as he had done in FP2 on Friday. Alonso simply climbed out of the car and sat in a deck chair next to the track to enjoy the rest of Q1, winking to the cameras before later relaxing in the sunshine with his eyes closed before eventually returning to the pits.

The session was not much better for team-mate Jenson Button, who also dropped out in the first part of qualifying with the 17th fastest time, suggesting he had too much front wing on his car for his final attempt. Only the Manor pair of Alexander Rossi and Will Stevens were slower than Button, with Pastor Maldonado also dropping out by just 0.039s courtesy of a late improvement from Ericsson.

AS IT HAPPENED: Brazilian Grand Prix - qualifying

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