Lewis Hamilton to start from pit lane after crashing out of Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying as Valtteri Bottas takes pole

For the second race in a row, Lewis Hamilton faces a fight from the back of the field after his crash during the first qualifying session here at an overcast Interlagos this afternoon.

The drama of the newly crowned champion’s misfortune on his out lap overshadowed a gripping fight for pole between his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas and Sebastian Vettel, which the Finn eventually won by 0.038s.

Hamilton’s Mercedes snapped beyond his control going into the fast uphill right-hander Curva do Laranjinha, and hit the tyre wall sideways on. It was a few moments before he responded to his crew, when he said, “I’m okay guys.”

He got himself out of the cockpit and inspected the rear of his stricken machine; no medical checks were required.

"I’m not quite sure exactly what happened,” he said. "I don't really have much to say. Challenges are really what make life interesting obviously, and I think I set this one for myself. I'll do the best that I can tomorrow to recover from it. Not the greatest of days but I'll keep my head up."

Having had to fight back from 19th place when he clinched his fourth world championship in Mexico a fortnight ago, he admitted, "I'm not currently relishing it at the moment, but I have no choice. I'm sure I'll figure my way through."

Bottas set the pace at the start of the final qualifying session for the top 10, with a lap in 1m 08.442s, but Vettel beat that with 1m 08.360s to take the provisional pole. His Ferrari team-mate Kimi Raikkonen was third on 1m 08.767s from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, the Mexican GP winner, on 1m 09.065s. Could Vettel take his 51st pole?

It transpired that he could not, as his second run lap of 1m 08.418s came up short and Bottas improved.

“I’d have loved to be ahead,” Vettel said, “but I chickened out a little on the brakes going into Turn 1 and lost a bit too much time. That left the last corner to try and get some of that back and I got some of it, but by then I was too much behind.

“But the car was not bad, and with only three-hundredths between you, you always think there must have been somewhere you could have got that. But let’s see what happens tomorrow.”

Faced with carrying all of Mercedes’ hopes for the win, Bottas was chirpy, as his second run lap of 1m 08.322s snatched the glory away from Vettel and Ferrari. Raikkonen improved but stayed third, and Verstappen joined the aces below 1m 09s with 1m 08.925s, but stayed fourth. He will undoubtedly pose a strong threat to the leading trio tomorrow.

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“It’s a good feeling to get that good lap in the end,” Bottas said, relieved at last to have been able to rise to the occasion when it really mattered. “It was a shame what happened with Lewis, so I was happy to stand up for us and take the pole.”

If, as Sky F1 commentator Martin Brundle pointed out, the bumps of this famed track have been resurfaced away to enhance the grip and improve safety, facilitating the record speeds that qualifying produced, little has been done to tame the lawless areas outside its gates.

After members of his Mercedes team, including his chief mechanic, were robbed at gunpoint here on Friday night Hamilton tweeted: “This happens every single year here. F1 and the teams need to do more, there is no excuse.”

This was far from the first time that F1 personnel have been confronted by Sao Paulo’s seamier side. In 2006, Fernanda Villa-Boas, Alastair Moffitt and Marielouise Mammische of the Toyota F1 team were held up at gunpoint shortly after leaving the circuit.

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In 2009 reporter Frederieke Hens had the unnerving experience of being shot at as she and her colleagues sat in the Fuji TV minibus, in much the same place. It transpired that the gunmen were two pre-teen desperados. “And a cop 20 metres away couldn’t have cared less,” Hens reported.

In 2010 Jenson Button, his father John, manager Richard Goddard and physio Mike Collier were attacked by gunmen and only the quick actions of their trained driver Daniel Toni enabled them to escape in their bulletproof A class Mercedes.

We were driving out of the circuit, in good spirits, and then we drove down to where the favelas are and there's traffic lights,” Button said.

“We were in the third row back from the lights, it's a three-lane road, and we were in the middle. And we looked to the right and there's the entrance to one of the favelas and we saw a dog wandering there. Then five guys walking towards us. One had a knife and then another guy went into his trousers and suddenly he had a gun. A shotgun or a machine gun, I don't know. Another had a baseball bat.

“Initially the reaction was just adrenalin as we escaped, and then that evening when we were all together, it was like, ‘Oh my God, that was proper scary.’”

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The next day the area was flooded with heavily armed police, but few were in evidence here on Friday evening when the Mercedes crew were ordered at gunpoint from their team minibus and robbed.

FIA head of communications Matteo Bonciani, deputy race director and director of safety Laurent Mekies and media manager Pierre Guyonnet-Duperat, were also attacked by gunmen and their car was rammed, but since most senior personnel these days order bulletproof vehicles, they were fortunate to be able to effect an escape.

Security has once more significantly been tightened up again.