Lewis Hamilton wins in Brazil
Hamilton was 0.093 seconds ahead of his former title rival after a close, tense battle, with their team-mates Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen next.
After failing to follow stewards' instructions at the weighbridge, Sebastian Vettel was rebuked and consequently fined 25,000 euros. Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bulls were fifth and sixth respectively, but the Australian has a five-place penalty.
Vettel claimed his weighbridge incident occurred because he was anxious to get back to the pits.
He did an exploratory lap on used super-soft tyres and wanted to have the soft tyres he wanted to use for qualifying fitted before rain fell.
Rain was threatening and he just wanted to go out again - and being weighed costs time that might have prevented that.
In addition, Vettel also drove at a steward who was standing in his way preventing him going on the scales until they were all set.
"They shouldn't call us. When the conditions are changing like that, it is not fair. I wanted them to hasten up." He said
He declined on discussing it further when asked to expatiate during press conference, saying: "I don't wanna talk it through. What happened is clear. We did qualifying. I think we talk about qualifying."
Ferrari began the session which was looking to have upper hand over Mercedes, but Hamilton triumphed in a difficult session that was hindered by light rain at several points during the hour, even if the track was not wet at the decisive moments.
With just 0.049secs, Vettel was the second quickest to Bottas in second qualifying despite using the harder 'soft' tyre in search of a strategic advantage in the race.
But when it counts, Hamilton edged him out for his 10th pole of the season.
What the two said
Hamilton : "That was a difficult qualifying session. This weekend, Ferrari have been incredibly fast.”
"We did a lot of work to make sure the car is in the best condition. The last lap wasn't that good so I wasn’t aware I had pole and I was so thankful when I heard I did.
Vettel : “ The first sector was wonderful."
"I missed it in Turn Eight," "I tried.”
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