There was a familiar team on pole in Brazil – and it was another landmark in their Formula 1 journey. Lewis Hamilton, having claimed his fifth world championship last time out in Mexico, didn’t take his foot off the gas at Interlagos, claiming Mercedes’ 100th pole position in F1 and their fifth in a row here, finishing up less than a tenth of a second ahead of nearest rival Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari. Vettel trailed the Briton by just 0.093s, although his P2 was later under threat as he was summoned by the stewards for allegedly "destroying the scales" at the FIA weighbridge, after failing to turn off his engine as required. He escaped a grid penalty, though, with stewards, after hearing from Vettel and reviewing telemetry and video evidence, deciding to hand the four-time world champion a €25,000 fine, as well as a first reprimand of the season. The German joins Hamilton on the front row, followed by the sister Silver Arrow of Valtteri Bottas who completed the top three, while Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen comfortably drove to fourth on the grid, with the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo unable to get within three-tenths of the Finn. Ricciardo will drop to 11th, though, having been hit with a five-place grid penalty for taking on new power-unit elements this weekend. Perhaps the surprise of the session was the driver sitting in P7. For most of the weekend, it has been Haas who have been ‘best of the rest’ but it was Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson - taking part in what's set to be his penultimate F1 race this weekend - who was the quicker of the midfield pack behind the top three teams. The Swede’s team mate Charles Leclerc came home in eighth, ahead of Haas’ Romain Grosjean and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly, who has been armed with Honda’s Spec 3 engine this weekend and will be looking to get off the line quickly on Sunday.