Danny Ric is always good for some entertainment. This was yesterday...

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at Interlagos

Image source, Getty Images

Lewis Hamilton had looked to be the man to beat after final practice but his pace then - and how it came about - led Mercedes up a garden path the direction of which was away from pole. They were playing about with their tyre preparation and technical director James Allison said: “We had a tricky day from that point of view and it probably coloured our qualifying session a little. We had a result in the morning where Lewis did a stand-out lap and finished P3 in great form, which indicated to us that we probably wanted the front tyres a little cooler from Friday running and that coloured our perception as we went into qualifying.

“But our story of qualifying was one where we progressively realised that that was not a good direction. And by the final run of Q3, we got ourselves in a more sensible place, more aligned with everyone else was up to, and got a lap together that was competitive but not good enough for pole. Had we been slightly more quick to realise that we'd headed down the wrong path, then we might have had - on a grid that's fairly tight -a better chance of securing a better grid slot than we did.

Hamilton said: “P3 was really strong for us and obviously once we got to qualifying, these guys (Verstappen and Vettel) had great pace and we were losing out to Max on the straights by quite a chunk, which is where the majority of the time was coming from but just kept chipping away at it.

“The last lap was as really as good as it could get really for us. The car actually felt really good, we were just lacking a little bit of pace on the straights but hopefully tomorrow that’ll put us in a good position in terms of longevity on the stints. Maybe. Who knows? But otherwise I’m happy to be able to split the Ferraris. It always puts a smile on my face.”

Matthew Thomas: Can't see past Verstappen for victory at the Brazilian GP but hoping Vettel has a great race from P2.

1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari)
3. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
4. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)
5. Alexander Albon (Red Bull)
6. Pierre Gasly (Toro Rosso)
7. Romain Grosjean (Haas)
8. Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo)
9. Kevin Magnussen (Haas)
10. Lando Norris (McLaren)
11. Daniel Ricciardo (Renault)
12. Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo)
13. Nico Hulkenberg (Renault)
14. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
15. Sergio Perez (Racing Point)
16. Daniil Kvyat (Toro Rosso)
17. Lance Stroll (Racing Point)
18. George Russell (Williams)
19. Robert Kubica (Williams)
20. Carlos Sainz (McLaren)

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at Interlagos

Image source, Getty Images

Eagle-eyed followers of Formula 1 may well have noticed that Max Verstappen has been fastest in qualifying in two of the last three races, and that those tracks share one particular characteristic - altitude. Mexico City is at more than 2,000m above sea level and Interlagos at about 800m and it is apparent that the Honda engine used by Red Bull is comparatively more competitive when the air is thinner. The question is why?

The problem faced by engine manufacturers is relatively straightforward. As Mercedes technical director James Allison said: “(At altitude), the air is thinner and the compressor has to do more work to get the charge (the air injected into the cylinder) up to sea-level conditions.”

The first-order effect here is the speed at which teams normally run their turbo and how much headroom they have to increase it at altitude to make up for the lower air density. A team that usually runs its turbo/compressor unit close to or at the maximum limit of 125,000rpm - which gives best efficiency for the other 18 races not at altitude because it allows the manufacturer to run their turbo at a single speed - has less headroom to increase its speed to cope with altitude, so it reaches what is known as “saturation” sooner. The higher the altitude, the greater this impact.

After that, there is a second-order effect - using energy to increase the speed of the turbo/compressor reduces the energy that can be recovered by the MGU-H and added to the electrical boost system. So a saturated engine has more facility to generate electrical energy from the turbo. But that is less important than the ability to increase the speed of the turbo in the first place.

Of course, no-one will say whether Honda is gaining in Mexico and Brazil because other manufacturers are saturated on turbo speed before they are, because they don’t want to give away their own technical secrets. But the strong likelihood is that that is the explanation.

Predictions time. What's going to happen today? What do you want to happen today?

Tweet us via #bbcf1 to have your say.

That incident from last year was very much still on Verstappen's mind yesterday. He joked the collision with Ocon had been "karma" after his dad, Jos, was involved in a similar incident with then race leader Juan Pablo Montoya at this race 18 years ago.

Watch that one below.

Things got a bit feisty in Brazil last year. Race leader Max Verstappen was trying to go past the lapped Esteban Ocon, the pair tangled and Verstappen subsequently lost the lead of the race, with Hamilton going on to win with the Dutchman second.

Verstappen, still furious, hunted out Ocon in the pits with some stroppy pushing following afterwards.

Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer at Interlagos

Image source, Getty Images

Max Verstappen looked a decent bet for pole position from his first lap on Saturday, and his credentials were underlined through qualifying, where he was fastest in every single session.

In the final session, Verstappen actually set two laps fastest enough for pole - and the first one despite a big wobble at the downhill left-hander called Pinheirinho midway around the lap. “I tried a different line, but also the track was a bit warmer and that gave me a bit more oversteer and then of course I went a bit wide. The second lap, luckily, was a bit better. So, yeah, all good.”

His race pace also looked good on Friday - if perhaps not quite as good as Lewis Hamilton’s. Can anyone stop him, especially with Hamilton starting two places back?

This is how Verstappen took his second pole of the season, well, his second that was legal.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen beat Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel to pole position at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

It was Verstappen's second career pole, although he qualified fastest in Mexico two races ago before being penalised for failing to slow for caution flags.

New world champion Lewis Hamilton slipped into third place right at the end of the session, demoting Ferrari's Charles Leclerc to fourth.

Leclerc has a 10-place grid penalty as a result of excessive engine usage.

Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas took fifth, ahead of the Red Bull of Alex Albon.

Image source, .

First up, a quick look back at yesterday's qualifying.

Hello!

Two races to go in the 2019 Formula 1 season and Brazil is the setting today.

I'm Michael Emons and I will be guiding you through the action. As always, we've got radio commentary later on with our excellent team.

The titles are all wrapped up, with Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes, once again, taking the honours this season.

Image source, Getty Images

But that doesn't mean it's all going to be dull from here on.

We've got Max Verstappen leading the way today, Lewis Hamilton on the second row, Charles Leclerc looking to overtake from 14th, Carlos Sainz at the back.

Throw in the fact we're at a great track that has provided some brilliant moments of racing and there will be plenty to keep us excited over the next few hours.

Image source, Getty Images