LEWIS Hamilton stormed to pole position at the Brazilian Grand Prix with Mercedes teammate and title rival Nico Rosberg joining the triple Formula One world champion on the front row.

On a damp and overcast Sao Paulo afternoon, it was the 60th pole of Hamilton’s career, eight short of Michael Schumacher’s record, and his first in Brazil since 2012 when he was at McLaren.

With his title on the line, it was also one of Hamilton’s most important in a roller-coaster season marked by mechanical setbacks.

Rosberg will take his first championship if he wins the penultimate race of the season but Hamilton, 19 points adrift, showed he will do all he can to take the fight down to the wire in Abu Dhabi with another dominant qualifying display.

“This is the best I could have hoped for really coming into Brazil. It’s always a track that I struggled at,” said Hamilton, who has never won at the bowl-like anti-clockwise Interlagos circuit.

Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen qualified third with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen joining the 2007 world champion on the second row of the grid.

Ferrari and Red Bull also shared the third row with Sebastian Vettel and Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo qualifying fifth and sixth ahead of a race that could well be wet, with showers threatened.

For Ricciardo it would have been a disappointing day as he was consistently slower than his teammate through practice.

The pole was a record 19th in 20 races this season for Mercedes. Rosberg, winner from pole in Brazil for the past two seasons, was quicker than Hamilton at the first split on his final lap but then faded.

“It was exciting qualifying, very close and Lewis was just marginally quicker in the end,” Rosberg said.

“My lap was good as well, just not quick enough...missing that little bit out there.

“But it’s OK. Pole isn’t always the guy who then wins the race, I’m still optimistic for tomorrow.”