Sebastian Vettel grabs record-breaking 15th pole position in Brazil

The world champion topped Q2 then absolutely dominated Q3. Vettel's initial 1m12.268s effort put him a quarter of a second clear of the pack, and he then improved to 1m11.918s with his final attempt.

Mark Webber made it an all-Red Bull front row, winning a battle with McLaren's Q1 pacesetter Jenson Button as the Briton ended a run of Interlagos qualifying disasters to take third. Button had looked like he might manage to hang on to a front row slot until Webber came through with a 1m12.099s on his second run.

Lewis Hamilton was back in fourth in the other McLaren.

The Ferraris took fifth and seventh - Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa split by Mercedes' Nico Rosberg, who had been a surprise second in Q2. Rosberg's team-mate Michael Schumacher did not attempt a final lap in Q3 so will start 10th.

Adrian Sutil took eighth in the leading Force India, ahead of Bruno Senna, who impressed on home ground to deliver a now rare Q3 appearance for a Renault.

Outside the top 10, Rubens Barrichello produced a strong performance to get his Williams up to 12th for what may be his last grand prix start.

Paul di Resta (Force India) and Vitaly Petrov (Renault) could not match their respective team-mates and will start 11th and 16th. The Toro Rossos will share row seven, while the Saubers made up the tail of the Q2 pack.

Pastor Maldonado was half a second down on Williams team-mate Rubens Barrichello as he ended up on the wrong side of the Q1 cut-off in 18th.

Lotus' new rear wing did not bring the hoped-for Q2 progress, but the team did move a further step closer to those ahead, with Heikki Kovalainen within half a second of Toro Rosso, Sauber and Williams pace.

HRT managed to get both its cars ahead of both Virgins, while Jerome D'Ambrosio outqualified Timo Glock in what could well be his final Virgin outing before being replaced by Charles Pic..

Pos  Driver                Team                 Time           Gap   
 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m11.918s
 2.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m12.099s   + 0.181
 3.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m12.283s   + 0.365
 4.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m12.480s   + 0.562
 5.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m12.591s   + 0.673
 6.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m13.050s   + 1.132
 7.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m13.068s   + 1.150
 8.  Adrian Sutil          Force India-Mercedes 1m13.298s   + 1.380
 9.  Bruno Senna           Renault              1m13.761s   + 1.843
10.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes
Q2 cut-off time: 1m13.571s                                   Gap **
11.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m13.584s   + 1.138
12.  Rubens Barrichello    Williams-Cosworth    1m13.801s   + 1.355
13.  Jaime Alguersuari     Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m13.804s   + 1.358
14.  Sebastien Buemi       Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m13.919s   + 1.473
15.  Vitaly Petrov         Renault              1m14.053s   + 1.607
16.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m14.129s   + 1.683
17.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m14.182s   + 1.736
Q1 cut-off time: 1m14.571s                                    Gap *
18.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Cosworth    1m14.625s   + 1.344
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Lotus-Renault        1m15.068s   + 1.787
20.  Jarno Trulli          Lotus-Renault        1m15.358s   + 2.077
21.  Tonio Liuzzi          HRT-Cosworth         1m16.631s   + 3.350
22.  Daniel Ricciardo      HRT-Cosworth         1m16.890s   + 3.609
23.  Jerome D'Ambrosio     Virgin-Cosworth      1m17.019s   + 3.738
24.  Timo Glock            Virgin-Cosworth      1m17.060s   + 3.779

107% time: 1m18.410s