A defiant Lewis Hamilton said: “my main job is done this year”, after he was denied pole position for the sixth consecutive race.
Hamilton is yet to be victorious in Brazil and he faces an uphill task of ending his hoodoo in the homeland of his great hero Ayrton Senna after he was edged out by Nico Rosberg on Saturday.
Rosberg, who extended his streak of poles to a career-best five, was just 0.078 seconds faster than his Mercedes team-mate at this famous Interlagos track.
For Hamilton it means he has not started a race from the front of the pack since September’s Italian Grand Prix. But the 30-year-old Briton, who is also recovering from a fever here, insists he is not fazed by his current pole-less streak.
”My main job is done this year,” said Hamilton, who sealed the title with three races to spare in Austin last month.
”It was good today. I got a really good balance with the car — very happy with the work we did with the engineers — I just could not find that small edge.“
Hamilton, who mysteriously did not pose with Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel for the traditional top-three photo after qualifying, added: "I had the most poles of the year and I won the world championship so there is nothing really to read into it. You don't always get it right. You can't always get it perfect every single time."
Rosberg ended his near five-month stretch without a victory at the last round in Mexico earlier this month.
And the German, a winner here last year, will be desperate to extend his winning streak as he bids to snatch the momentum back from Hamilton heading into next year’s campaign.
Rosberg said: “I’m pleased with today. It’s the best place to be for tomorrow’s race. Q2 didn’t really go to plan but I got it all together in Q3 and the last lap was on the edge. It’s always better to finish on a high than a low, for this season and also thinking about next year.”
While Mercedes sealed yet another front-row lockout, McLaren endured yet another embarrassing afternoon.
Jenson Button claimed earlier this week that he expects his McLaren team to be back fighting at the sharp end of the grid next season.
But there has been little to back up Button's bold claim in Interlagos. Button was knocked out of the first phase of qualifying after posting only the 17th best time while his team-mate Fernando Alonso stopped on track for the second successive day.
Instead of rushing back to the paddock, he sat on a deck chair and bathed in the 30 degree sun. Later, Alonso and Button appeared on the podium to wave to the Brazilian crowd with broad smiles on their faces.
Meanwhile, FIA president Jean Todt has courted criticism for comparing Friday night's terror attacks in his native France in which 127 people were murdered to road traffic accidents.
Todt told French television station Canal Plus: “Do you realise that the number of people killed in road accidents is by far bigger than the number of people who died in Paris.”
Todt added that a “moment of attention” will be observed for the Paris victims, but the FIA is yet to officially confirm its plans with a one-minute silence in memory of those who have died in road traffic accidents already scheduled.
