Hamilton seals 10th pole of year in Brazil, Vettel under investigation

Lewis Hamilton charged to his 10th pole position of the year in Brazil on Saturday ahead of Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel, as both drivers were caught in incidents through qualifying at Interlagos.

Hamilton managed to turn in a new track record of 1m07.291s to seal pole position for Mercedes, edging out Vettel by just 0.093 seconds in final stages of Q3.

Despite some light rain hitting the track in Q2, all drivers were able to get out on slicks for the final part of qualifying, with Hamilton getting the better of his title rival.

However, Hamilton could face a possible visit to the stewards after appearing to block both Sergey Sirotkin and Kimi Raikkonen during Q2. No official communication has been issued at the time of writing.

Vettel will meet with the stewards in the hour following qualifying after the FIA deemed him to have failed to follow instructions when called to the weighbridge early in Q2, as well as destroying the scales, leaving his P2 finish in serious doubt.

2017 Brazil pole-sitter Valtteri Bottas took third place for Mercedes, pipping fellow Finn Kimi Raikkonen by just 0.015 seconds, leaving the Ferrari driver P4 on the grid.

Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo failed to put up a fight to the Mercedes and Ferrari cars ahead, leaving them fifth and sixth respectively. Ricciardo will drop to 11th on the grid on Sunday as a result of his grid penalty.

Marcus Ericsson recorded the best qualifying result of his F1 career, taking P7 for Sauber ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc. Ericsson will rise to the third row of the grid on Sunday by virtue of Ricciardo’s penalty.

Romain Grosjean finished ninth for Haas, while Pierre Gasly put Honda’s Spec 3 engine to good use to take P10 for Toro Rosso.

With rain growing heavier towards the end of Q2, improvements looked hard to come by, prompting Haas to keep Kevin Magnussen in the garage following his first run despite being on the bubble in P10. The decision backfired when Leclerc pulled out a shock improvement late on, dumping Magnussen out in P11.

Sergio Perez’s final Q2 lap came too late to get him through to the top 10 as the rain intensified, leaving him 12th ahead of teammate Esteban Ocon in P13. Ocon will drop to 18th on the grid as a result of his penalty for a gearbox change.

Nico Hulkenberg finished as the top works Renault in P14, two-tenths shy of advancing to Q3, while Sergey Sirotkin reached Q2 for the first time since Monza as he qualified 15th for Williams.

Following a dry start to the session, the first spots of rain fell towards the end of Q1, making it difficult for drivers to make improvements. Carlos Sainz Jr. missed out on a spot in Q2 by just 0.005 seconds as a result of the drops coming down as the Renault driver matched his worst qualifying result of the year in P16.

Brendon Hartley failed to match Gasly for pace in the second Toro Rosso, finishing two-tenths of a second behind his teammate in Q1, leaving him five positions adrift in P17.

McLaren was left to digest its fourth double Q1 elimination in the last five races as Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne finished 18th and 20th respectively, both failing to improve their lap times in the damp late on. They were split by Lance Stroll, who took 19th for Williams.