F1 Brazilian Grand Prix: Rosberg takes fifth straight pole

Even though he would, in all likelihood, trade the achievement for five straight wins and a drivers' world championship Nico Rosberg's five consecutive pole positions is an impressive statistic considering he has had to beat Mercedes AMG F1 teammate Lewis Hamilton to do it. Hamilton's pace over a single lap has allowed him to reach 49 career pole positions but Rosberg made him wait a bit longer for his 50th by clinching pole for Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix by lapping the 4.309km Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace in a time of 1min. 11.282sec.

The recently crowned three-time F1 world champion was just 0.078 seconds off the polesitter's time with the Ferrari of former four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel a further 0.544 seconds behind on the second row where the Valtteri Bottas will keep him company in his Williams-Mercedes. Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari completes the top five with Nico Hulkenberg's Force India-Mercedes, Daniil Kvyat's Red Bull-Renault, Felipe Massa's Williams-Mercedes, Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull-Renault and Max Verstappen's Toro Rosso-Renault completing the top ten.

The session saw times around a second slower than the ones posted last year on account of newly laid kerbs that didn't allow drivers to cut too deep into a corner as well as low grip caused by what some drivers described as the circuit's 'crumbling track surface'.

As was evident by the pecking order, however, there was not too great a variation in the form of teams for the majority of the season. This - sadly for McLaren fans - included the sight of Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso struggling to keep up with the field in their McLaren-Hondas. A blown engine in free practice was followed by a similar incident in qualifying for former double world champion Alonso. The Spaniard's forlorn expression and body language after each incident summed up the season for the former world championship winning squad.

Alonso and Button, who was knocked out in the first of three segments of qualifying, saw the funny side though and took to the top step of the podium to give fans a glimpse of where they still - publicly, at least - believe McLaren-Honda is headed soon.

And finally the events of the qualifying session itself were, to an extent overshadowed by those in the French capital of Paris, where terrorist attacks claimed the lives of over 120 people. F1's governing body the International Automobile Federation (FIA) will conduct a minute's silence to honour the victims of the attacks, claimed to have been carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.