Hulkenberg takes shock pole in Brazil

All the frontrunners had changed to slick tyres for their final runs at the end of Q3 and the German unleashed a string of fastest laps to beat Red Bull Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber to pole position.

The Red Bulls looked in danger of starting at the wrong end of the top 10 right up until the last seconds, with Webber having gone off with two minutes remaining. The Australian leapt up to second with his last effort, only to be pushed down to third by his team-mate.

Lewis Hamilton briefly held the top spot during the final run but was eventually shuffled down to fourth.

Championship leader Fernando Alonso was another to spend a few seconds up top but will find himself at the head of the third row tomorrow. Rubens Barrichello will start alongside him.

Robert Kubica was one of the first drivers to go out on slicks, though he went off and rejoined before getting his best laps in. He ended up seventh, ahead of Michael Schumacher.

Home hero Felipe Massa only just made it into Q3 and will start just ninth, with Vitaly Petrov completing the top 10.

Jenson Button's already faint hopes of remaining in the title fight were close to eliminated when he failed to make it through to Q3. His final lap of the drying Q2 session was good enough for 10th spot, but Massa was just a few seconds behind and bumped him into the drop zone.

Kamui Kobayashi will start 12th, ahead of Nico Rosberg who missed Q3 for the first time since Spa. Jaime Alguersuari will share row seven with Nick Heidfeld once Sebastien Buemi, who qualified 15th, has taken his grid penalty for crashing into Timo Glock in Korea.

Adrian Sutil was the casualty of Q1, joining the six regulars in the elimination zone. He was swapped that spot during the session with Vitantonio Liuzzi, but ended frustrated after his Force India team-mate spun off the road and spoiled his lap when rejoining. To make matters worse for Sutil, he will take a five-place penalty for his collision with Kobayashi in Korea.

Timo Glock carried the flag for Virgin, beating the Lotuses of Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen to 19th spot. Christian Klien out-qualified HRT Bruno Senna, who spun at the end of Q1 and will start his first home grand prix from the back.

Pos  Driver         Team                   Q1        Q2        Q3
 1.  Hulkenberg     Williams-Cosworth      1:20.050  1:19.144  1:14.470
 2.  Vettel         Red Bull-Renault       1:19.160  1:18.691  1:15.519
 3.  Webber         Red Bull-Renault       1:19.025  1:18.516  1:15.637
 4.  Hamilton       McLaren-Mercedes       1:19.931  1:18.921  1:15.747
 5.  Alonso         Ferrari                1:18.987  1:19.010  1:15.989
 6.  Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth      1:19.799  1:18.925  1:16.203
 7.  Kubica         Renault                1:19.249  1:18.877  1:16.552
 8.  Schumacher     Mercedes               1:19.879  1:18.923  1:16.925
 9.  Massa          Ferrari                1:19.778  1:19.200  1:17.101
10.  Petrov         Renault                1:20.189  1:19.153  1:17.656
11.  Button         McLaren-Mercedes       1:19.905  1:19.288
12.  Kobayashi      Sauber-Ferrari         1:19.741  1:19.385
13.  Rosberg        Mercedes               1:20.153  1:19.486
14.  Alguersuari    Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:20.158  1:19.581
15.  Buemi          Toro Rosso-Ferrari     1:20.096  1:19.847
16.  Heidfeld       Sauber-Ferrari         1:20.174  1:19.899
17.  Liuzzi         Force India-Mercedes   1:20.592  1:20.357
18.  Sutil          Force India-Mercedes   1:20.830
19.  Glock          Virgin-Cosworth        1:22.130
20.  Trulli         Lotus-Cosworth         1:22.250
21.  Kovalainen     Lotus-Cosworth         1:22.378
22.  di Grassi      Virgin-Cosworth        1:22.810
23.  Klien          HRT-Cosworth           1:23.083
24.  Senna          HRT-Cosworth           1:23.796

All Timing Unofficial