World champion Lewis Hamilton beat Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel to pole position at the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Axar.az reports citing Western media that Hamilton was 0.093 seconds clear of his former title rival after a tight, tense battle, with their team-mates Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen next.

Vettel, though, faces an investigation after failing to follow stewards' instructions at the weighbridge.

Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bulls were fifth and sixth, but the Australian has a five-place penalty.

Vettel said his weighbridge incident had happened because he was eager to get back to the pits.

He had done an exploratory lap on used super-soft tyres and wanted to have the soft tyres he wanted to use for qualifying fitted before any rain fell.

Rain was threatening and he wanted to go out again - and being weighed costs time that might have prevented that.

In addition to his other misdemeanours, he also drove at a steward who was standing in his way preventing him going on the scales until they were ready.

Vettel said: "They shouldn't call us. When the conditions are changing like that, it is unfair. I wanted them to hurry up."