Nico Rosberg claimed his fifth consecutive pole position Saturday when he outpaced Mercedes team-mate and world champion Lewis Hamilton to take the prime starting slot for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix.
The 30-year-old German, who has found his form in the final part of a season that was dominated by the newly-crowned triple champion Hamilton, produced another text-book demonstration of his craft to leave the Englishman still waiting to claim his elusive 50th career pole.
Rosberg, who won the Mexican Grand Prix two weeks ago to boost his hopes of finishing as runner-up in the title race, clocked a fastest lap in one minute and 11.282 seconds in the final seconds of the session to beat Hamilton by 0.078 seconds.
It was the 21st pole of his career, the most by any driver not to have won the world title, and yet another front row lockout for the Mercedes team.
Rosberg also became the 13th driver in F1 history to claim five straight poles.
Behind the two “Silver Arrows” men, four-time champion Sebastian Vettel took third place for Ferrari ahead of Valtteri Bottas of Williams and his fellow-Finn Kimi Raikkonen in the second Ferrari.
Bottas, however, will drop to seventh on the grid as a result of a penalty that therefore ensures Ferrari fill the second row of the grid for Sunday’s race.
Nico Hulkenberg of Force India was sixth ahead of Daniil Kvyat of Red Bull, local hero Felipe Massa in the second Williams, Daniel Ricciardo in the second Red Bull and the ever-improving Dutch teenager Max Verstappen who took 10th place for Toro Rosso.