With just 3 tenths covering the top 3 teams at the end of final practice, it was set to be a close fight at the front but it was Max Verstappen of Red Bull who dominated qualifying topping all 3 sessions.
Max Verstappen on pole after dominant qualifying
Qualifying 1:
It wasn't the ideal start to the session for McLaren as Carlos Sainz reported an issue on his outlap and was immediately called in to the pits by his engineer.
The Haas duo had a decent outing in Brazil as Magnussen described it being the best they've had since Monaco earlier this year.
Both Grosjean and him ran comfortably in the next part of qualifying.
Kvyat was a surprise knockout in Q1. He was pipped by Sergio Perez by 0.032s while his teammate Pierre Gasly finished the session P9.
George Russell continued to assert his dominance over Robert Kubica out-qualifying
his teammate 20-0 this season with Lance Stroll ahead of them in P17.
Elimination Zone Q1:
Danill Kvyat
Lance Stroll
George Russell
Robert Kubica
Carlos Sainz
Qualifying 2:
All the remaining drivers started Q2 on the soft tyres except for Charles Leclerc who opted for the medium tyres.
The Monégasque driver has a 10 place grid penalty and was pushing his Ferrari to limit in order to minimise the effect of the penalty.
Kimi Raikkonen out-qualified his teammate Antonio Giovinazzi and made through to Q3 after a good enough lap on his first attempt.
Lando Norris missed out on Q3 by just 0.010s finishing P11 for McLaren ahead of the Both Renaults, The Alfa Romeo of Giovinazzi and the Racing Point of Sergio Perez.
Elimination Zone Q2:
Lando Norris
Daniel Ricciardo
Antonio Giovinazzi
Nico Hulkenberg
Sergio Perez
Qualifying 3:
After 2 dominant sessions, Red Bull were in the driver's seat for pole position. Max Verstappen went quickest on the first runs of Q3 with Sebastian Vettel a mere 8 milliseconds behind.
3 tenths covered the Top 6 after the first runs. Newly crowned champion Lewis Hamilton couldn't keep up with the pace of Ferrari and Red Bull but managed to Qualify P3.
Gasly finished qualifying best of the rest in P7 ahead of Romain Grosjean. Raikkonen qualified ahead of the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen.
But it was Max Verstappen who put in a scintillating lap of 1:07:508 to claim pole position around the Historic Sao Paulo circuit.
Final Classification:
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