Brazilian GP: Vettel shocked by his dominance

The wet weather at Interlagos was expected to close up the playing field.

But instead Vettel produced one of his most commanding performances of the season as he initially took provisional pole by over a second and was still 0.623 seconds quicker than main rival Nico Rosberg at the end of the session.

"It's a big surprise," said Vettel of his margin of superiority. "I was so happy after the qualifying.

"When we got out I was surprised by how much water had gone. I went straight onto intermediates and was able to do a very, very good lap straight away.

"I tried on my second lap to beat that and it was very close. So I was very happy with both my laps and surprised by the margin.

"It's great to get it all right in these conditions. We had very little practice but got the car where we wanted."

Vettel also backed the decision to delay Q3 by just over three quarters of an hour due to the rain level, even though by the time the session started, the track was nearly ready for intermediates.

"It was a shame for the people who waited for us, but there was too much water and the risk of aquaplaning was too high," he said.