Story highlights
Nico Rosberg clinches pole for Sunday's Brazil GP.
Beat teammate Hamilton by the narrowest of margins.
Rosberg must win as Hamilton leads championship.
Brazilian Massa takes an emotional third place on grid.
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg will start the Brazilian Grand Prix in pole position after a breathtaking final qualifying session at Interlagos.
Rosberg narrowly beat teammate and rival Lewis Hamilton in to second place on the grid after both drivers broke course records. In the end, Rosberg prevailed by just 0.033 seconds.
The season has, in many ways, been defined by the bitter rivalry between, and dominance of, Rosberg and Hamilton.
The former friends have locked horns, and clashed wheels, at a series of races, from Bahrain to Germany to Hungary to Belgium.
But going into the penultimate race of the season, Hamilton is 24 points ahead. Most seasons this would put Hamilton in control of the championship.
But not this season.
Double jeopardy
The introduction of double points for the final race in Abu Dhabi has completely transformed the calculus. Neither driver can win the championship in Brazil but if Hamilton wins, and Rosberg fails to finish, double points means that the German could still steal the title from Hamilton despite being 49 points behind.
“That was good and I am happy to be on pole,” Rosberg said in a press conference after the race.
“It is the best place to start the race, but I have to do better than I did last week in Austin and convert this into a win.”
Hamilton, for his part, was gracious in defeat.
“Congratulations to Nico,” he said. “He drove a really great lap and it was a truly thrilling session, just what qualifying is all about. Every time I went out I had to go faster and improve and so did Nico. I hope everyone enjoyed watching that.”
But the biggest cheers were reserved for the Brazilian driver Felipe Massa, who was third fastest for Williams.
“That was very emotional for me,” Massa said. “I really felt the crowd with me today.”
Crowd sourced racing?
Meanwhile, off the track, Bernie Ecclestone denied that Formula One is in the midst of a financial crisis.
Last week two teams effectively went out of business.
Marussia folded on Friday whilst Caterham went in to administration. Neither team had appeared at the US or Brazil races.
“People say F1 is in crisis … absolute nonsense,” Ecclestone told AFP.
“We’ve had a couple of teams in crisis. People come and go. They need to know how much is coming in and how much is going out. Maybe the major four or five teams can make a contribution for one year only.”
The administrators taking charge of Caterham’s financial affairs had announced an innovative plan to allow the team to race at Abu Dhabi: crowd source the necessary $3.7 million.
Ecclestone, however, was not impressed.
“It’s up to the fans if that’s what they want to do/ Maybe people will put investment in the team,” he said. “I think it’s a disaster.”