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McLarens top Brazil GP grid

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<b>FINAL MCLAREN POLE:</b> Lewis Hamilton - in his final race for McLaren - secured pole position ahead of Sunday's Brazilian F1 GP.
<b>FINAL MCLAREN POLE:</b> Lewis Hamilton - in his final race for McLaren - secured pole position ahead of Sunday's Brazilian F1 GP.
SAO PAUO, Brazil - Lewis Hamilton grabbed pole position in his last race for McLaren in Brazil on Saturday while Red Bull's championship leader Sebastian Vettel qualified well ahead of Ferrari title rival Fernando Alonso.

Vettel will start the season-ending race in fourth place, a position good enough to secure his third title in a row if he keeps it in what promises to be a rain-lashed race at Interlagos on Sunday.

MCLAREN LOCK-OUT


The 25-year-old German is sure to move up a place soon enough in the race, with Australian team mate Mark Webber starting alongside in third place and in no doubt about what he will be expected to do.

Said Vettel, who made a mistake on his first run in the final session: "All in all we are in good shape and we have been competitive and we will see what we can do tomorrow."

Alonso, 13 points adrift of Vettel, has to finish on the podium to have any hope of taking his third title and the Spaniard gave himself a mountain to climb with eighth place on the starting grid.

He could move up a place, however, with Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado qualifying sixth but set to face the stewards after missing a weighbridge in the second phase of qualifying.

Alonso can also count on the support of his Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa, who qualified fifth at his home circuit but is sure to let the title contender go past when the opportunity arises.

Alonso told reporters: "Ninth in USA and eighth here so more or less as I expected. I will try to achieve the podiums which we achieved in Abu Dhabi and Austin from those positions."

Hamilton's pole, the 26th of his career, was McLaren's first in Brazil since Mika Hakkinen in 2000 and the Briton will start next to Jenson Button in the team's 62nd front-row lockout.

Hamilton, who is moving to Mercedes next season, said: "I think the weather will be tricky tomorrow, it will make it more of a lottery.

"We've put ourselves in a really good position to do the best job we can do. We need to work together as a team. We'll make sure we do absolutely everything to get the job done."

Qualifying started after a light rain shower and with overcast skies, but the track was drying through the session without a feared downpour.

Germany's Nico Hulkenberg, who was on pole at Interlagos in 2010 for Williams in weather-affected conditions, qualified seventh in his last race for Force India before moving to Sauber.

Finland's 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen put his Lotus in ninth place with Germany's Nico Rosberg rounding out the top 10 for Mercedes.

Raikkonen's team mate Romain Grosjean was the big loser from qualifying after tangling with the HRT of Spaniard Pedro De la Rosa in the first phase and ending up 18th.

Grosjean said: "I was behind Pedro for the whole lap, he had blue flags. I went to overtake him and I don't think he saw me, I braked as much as I could but we made contact. In those colder conditions it was difficult to get the tyres up to temperature for the final lap."

Seven times world champion Michael Schumacher will start his last F1 race in 14th place for Mercedes, ending a three-year comeback at the age of 43. 

Qualifying from the Brazilian F1 GP at Interlagos:
1 Lewis Hamilton McLaren 1min12.458sec
2 Jenson Button McLaren 1min12.513
3 Mark Webber Red Bull 1min12.581
4 Sebastian Vettel Red Bull 1min12.760
5 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1min12.987
6 Pastor Maldonado Williams 1min13.174
7 Nico Hulkenberg Force India 1min13.206
8 Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1min13.253
9 Kimi Raikkonen Lotus 1min13.298
10 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1min13.489
Q2
11 Paul Di Resta Force India 1min14.121
12 Bruno Senna Williams 1min14.219
13 Sergio Perez Sauber 1min14.234
14 Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1min14.334
15 Kamui Kobayashi Sauber 1min14.380
16 Daniel Ricciardo Toro Rosso 1min14.574
17 Jean-Eric Vergne Toro Rosso 1min14.619
Q3
18 Romain Grosjean Lotus 1min16.967
19 Vitaly Petrov Caterham 1min17.073
20 Heikki Kovalainen Caterham 1min17.086
21 Timo Glock Marussia 1min17.508
22 Charles Pic Marussia 1min18.104
23 Narain Karthikeyan HRT 1min19.576
24 Pedro de la Rosa HRT 1min19.699

Third free practice session
Second free practice session
First free practice session

Stay with Wheels24 for the Brazilian F1 GP weekend

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