Patronise F1

A sensational qualifying session at Interlagos seemed to be going well for McLaren and Lewis Hamilton, until the crucial final session, when Felipe Massa stormed to pole position at his home track for the third year in a row, while Hamilton ended up down in fourth place after McLaren ceded their earlier pace once the race fuel loads were added.

Massa grabbed the quickest time right at the start of the final session, and his second run was even quicker. But he need not really have bothered wasting the tyres, as his position at the top was never really under threat. Alongside him on the front row will be the surprising form of Jarno Trulli, likely to be light on fuel in his Toyota, but perfectly placed to be the joker in the pack come the race tomorrow.

The second Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen will start third, just ahead of Hamilton, despite looking out of sorts all session long. Hamilton himself will rue making a number of mistakes on his first run, and although his second effort put him second for a moment or two, Raikkonen and Trulli both pipped him to leave him out of position.

His team mate fared (slightly) worse, and Heikki Kovalainen could only manage fifth. The Finn had topped Q2, and it looked like McLaren planned to use him as a lightly-fuelled spoiler to get ahead of Massa and ruin his race. But whether or not the fuel level in the McLaren was enough to allow him to attempt that, his actual efforts were fairly naff.

To add a bit more spice into the grid, Fernando Alonso will line up directly behind Hamilton in sixth. The guarded conspiracy whisperings of Martin Brundle that Alonso could well brake particularly late into turn 1 may be nonsense, but Alonso has made no secret of his preferred championship winner this year, and Hamilton will need to keep well ahead of the Renault for a comfortable afternoon.

The rest of the top ten saw impressive afternoons for the Toro Rosso pair, though they failed to crash the championship party in their Ferrari-powered machines, and Vettel ended the day 7th, with Bourdais in 9th, sandwiching Nick Heidfeld's BMW Sauber. Timo Glock completed the top ten in the second Toyota, despite having the only big moment of the day back in Q1 when he spun his car into the Senna S.

Before the madness of the final session, we lost a number of "big names". Nelson Piquet Jr and Rubens Barrichello failed to add to the Brazilian cheer by dropping out in the second session, along with early season kings Mark Webber and Robert Kubica, with the Pole in particular struggling for grip on the softer Bridgestone tyres. David Coulthard completed the five eliminated at the second hurdle, and the Scot will line up 14th for his F1 swansong.

If those drivers had bad afternoons, it was worse for Williams in particular. Despite never looking to have masses of pace throughout practice, the team would have expected a bit more than a double elimination in Q1, but that is exactly what they got. Kazuki Nakajima will line up 16th, with Nico Rosberg back in 18th, his blushes only saved (barely) by the traditional 19th and 20th Force India pairing behind him. Jenson Button also had a miserable afternoon, running so light that his car ran out of fuel on his in lap, but still unable to muster anything more than 17th. That Barrichello should be facing an uncertain future having outqualified the Brit so often this season is more than a tad unfair.

But as for the important stuff at the front, we have a near perfect grid for the neutral. All things being equal, Massa should now control the race at will, while Hamilton may only need to finish 5th or higher, but he has a few issues to contend with from fourth place. All this, and there's an 80% chance of rain. After a season of such questionable quality, will we finally get a title winning drive from one of the contenders tomorrow.

* Eliminated in second session
** Eliminated in first session