Brazil – Qualifications: Lewis Hamilton Unfazed
Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in this qualifying session where they had to juggle with raindrops, ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Valtteri Bottas.

The sky was very threatening over Interlagos at the start of the qualifying session, but the track was dry for Q1. The drivers quickly took to the track. However, as it took time to materialize, this left an opportunity for those fighting to advance to Q2 to make a third attempt, although it was still disrupted by some rain.
Esteban Ocon was able to save himself by just five thousandths of a second, just ahead of Carlos Sainz’s Renault. However, Sergey Sirotkin managed to deliver a nice surprise, with 13th place while Lance Stroll couldn’t do better than 19th, between the two McLarens of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne.
It was surprising to see Max Verstappen take the best lap of the session while Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel recorded exactly the same time, to the benefit of the Finn.
The eliminated are: Sainz, Hartley, Alonso, Stroll, and Vandoorne.
At the green light, everyone rushes onto the track, even though the Mercedes drivers waited a few seconds longer than their rivals. The entire field has chosen to use the softest tires, the Super Softs. But Ferrari is attempting an alternate strategy by bringing in Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel at the end of the formation lap to switch to the yellow tires, the Softs.
The strategy seems to be working since the German positioned himself in second place, just 49 thousandths behind Valtteri Bottas, with the Finn in 5th, three tenths behind. The Red Bulls and the Mercedes then tried a stint on softs, but the final part was flooded, and they were unable to improve.
On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton made two significant errors in front of Kimi Räikkönen and Sergey Sirotkin. He could therefore be penalized by the Brazilian stewards, but it was Sebastian Vettel who was summoned by the stewards for damaging the FIA scales during the mandatory weigh-in. Incomprehensible….
Close shave between Hamilton and Sirotkin #BrazilGP 🇧🇷 #F1 pic.twitter.com/E1oD7gnTW5
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 10, 2018
All the drivers returned to the pits five minutes before the end of Q2. However, the drivers close to the cutoff zone took the gamble of going back out at the very end of the session. Sauber instructed Charles Leclerc to return after his warm-up lap, but the Monegasque felt good on the track and decided to make one last attempt. It was a good decision, as he was able to move up from 11th to 8th place during this final lap. Consequently, Kevin Magnussen, who didn’t go back out, found himself trapped and was thus eliminated.
The eliminated were: Magnussen, Perez, Ocon, Hülkenberg, and Sirotkin.
Ultimately, the rain did not disrupt Q3. During the first run, it was Lewis Hamilton who managed to set the best time, only 73 milliseconds ahead of Sebastian Vettel. Their teammates were not far behind, as Kimi Räikkönen, in 4th, was just 155 milliseconds behind. In the second stint, only Lewis Hamilton was able to improve his time while all his rivals failed, thus securing pole position.
Note that Marcus Ericsson was able to achieve a better performance than his teammate Charles Leclerc.