At Interlagos, with a track drying and no rain falling, the first part of qualifying eliminated the new teams and Adrian Sutil. In Q3, the top ten qualifiers saw a track drying so much that after a round of laps in intermediate tyres and times up to 1:16's, the teams opted for slick tyres. This tyre gamble proved successful for Nico Hülkenberg, who took advantage of the situation and qualified over a second ahead of the next quickest cars, taking his first pole position. This also gave the Williams team their first pole since Nick Heidfeld qualified on pole at the 2005 European Grand Prix, and the first pole for Cosworth since the 1999 French Grand Prix. Hülkenberg gained his first Formula One pole position, by 1.049 seconds over Sebastian Vettel. Barrichello qualified a strong sixth. Hulkenberg lost the lead on the first lap, and he eventually finished the race in eighth place, having been passed by drivers in more competitive cars. For Barrichello, after a delayed pitstop, his traditional bad luck on home soil returned when he suffered a puncture after briefly colliding with Jaime Alguersuari, costing him any chance of scoring points.