Nico Rosberg continued his complete weekend dominance over Lewis Hamilton at Interlagos by claiming pole position for Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix. In doing so the Mercedes driver claimed the Pole Position Trophy. This was his 10th pole of the season, against Hamilton’s seventh, with one race remaining after today’s, in Abu Dhabi on 23 November. It is the first time Hamilton has been beaten in qualifying by his team-mate in the course of a season.

Rosberg, who beat Hamilton by just 0.033sec, also set a qualifying lap record for Interlagos, beating the time set by Rubens Barrichello 10 years ago.

Hamilton, who has yet to win in São Paulo, goes into the penultimate race of the season with a 24-point lead over Rosberg, with double points available in Abu Dhabi. Hamilton said: “It is a long race, with two or three stops and all the weather, and it should be quite exciting. I’m here and I want to win. I hope we get to have a race.” His team-mate Rosberg added: “It’s only a perfect job if I win. I need to make it happen, unlike in Austin last weekend.”

Felipe Massa will start in third place, the Brazilian’s best qualifying result since July. “It’s very emotional to be here, here in Brazil, to have a competitive car and to start in the top three,” said Massa. “Unfortunately I didn’t get everything out of the car [on the final lap] because I had traffic and problems with the car, so I couldn’t improve, whereas other people were improving a little bit.”

Rosberg’s performance underlined the advantage he has had over Hamilton here. He had already dominated the three practice sessions.