Sport
Lewis Hamilton wins pole position for Brazilian Grand Prix
A victorius Lewis Hamilton holds aloft his trophy next to second placed Red Bull Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel (l) and third placed Ferrari Formula One driver Fernando Alonso after the U.S. F1 Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas November 18, 2012. PHOTO/Adrees Latif/REUTERS
AP — Lewis Hamilton won the pole position for the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix on Saturday, while Formula One leader Sebastian Vettel will start fourth and title challenger Fernando Alonso eighth.
Hamilton set a lap of 1 minute, 12.458 seconds with his McLaren at Interlagos, just .055 in front of teammate Jenson Button.
Vettel’s Red Bull teammate Mark Webber will start third after a lap of 1:12.581, with Vettel behind him following a run of 1:12.760.
Ferrari’s Felipe Massa was fifth after clocking 1:12.987, while teammate Alonso only managed a lap of 1:13.253, hurting his chances of overtaking Vettel for the championship.
Hamilton, who won the 2008 championship at Interlagos, will be driving his last race with McLaren before joining Mercedes next season. He is coming off a victory at the United States Grand Prix last week.
“I think we put ourselves in a really good position and we are just going to do the best that we can from here, working together as a team,” Hamilton said.
Hamilton led the practice times on Friday and Button did the same earlier on Saturday. Vettel was always close behind the McLarens, while Alonso was well behind the pace.
Drivers had faced very warm temperatures during practice but it dropped significantly for qualifying. It started raining about half an hour before the timed session but it stopped by the time the cars hit the track. The top teams waited several minutes to avoid the slippery conditions at the tricky 4.5 km (2.8 mile) track in South America’s biggest city.
Michael Schumacher, preparing for his final race before retiring for a second time, couldn’t do much with his Mercedes and will start 14th.
Mexican Sergio Perez, taking over Hamilton’s seat at McLaren, will start 13th with his Sauber.