By Sam Cooper
October 20 2007

The Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One team have completed the final three part Qualifying session for this weekends title deciding grand prix in Sao Paulo Brazil. Current championship leader Lewis Hamilton has qualified in 2nd position behind Felipe Massa. Reigning world champion Fernando Alonso wasn’t able to capitalise on his second flying lap and ended the session 4th.

Session one started hot and dry with the two Spykers going out first. The two Spykers were over one and a half seconds slower than the times they set in the third practice session. Hinting that all the drivers would struggle for grip on this newly surfaced track.

Renault driver Hekki Kovalainen was the surprise driver to fall out in the first qualifying session. He was joined by Takuma Sato, Kazuki Nakajima, Anthony Davidson, Adrian Sutil and Sakon Yamamoto.

The session sessions started slow, with no drivers going out until twelve and a half minutes to go, the track yielded more grip than the first session which made the job easier for all the drivers. Out of the second part of qualifying was Jenson Button, Ralf Schumacher, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Sebastian Vettel, Giancarlo Fisichella and Rubens Barrichello.

The third and final session was always going to be tough and hard fought. Felipe Massa was fastest initially, followed by Kimi Räikkönen. The top four went out again to try and get the best possible time.

Felipe Massa smashed his best time and went even faster than he did before. Massa’s time was just in the 1.11’s. It was Hamilton’s time to go, he ventured out onto the circuit and set his best first sector time of the session, Fernando set a time within hundredths of a second of Hamilton’s. Lewis then pulled out all the stops and set the fastest second sector of anyone and finished just under a tenth behind Felipe Massa. Meanwhile Fernando Alonso wasn’t able to capitalise on an extra lap and will line up in fourth position behind Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen.

Best of the rest was Red Bull Racings Mark Webber, Mark stands a good chance to collect some much needed points for Red Bull. The Two BMW Sauber’s of Nick Heidfeld and Robert Kubica finished in 6th and 7th positions respectively.

Jarno Trulli ended the session in 8th position for Toyota, just under two seconds slower than the top four. Scotland’s David Coulthard finished in 9th just ahead of Williams’s Nico Rosberg who rounded out the top ten.

Times from the session are shown below.