Lando Norris on pole with rival Max Verstappen 17th after chaotic Sao Paulo qualifying
George Russell will join his fellow Briton on the front row for Mercedes in a session postponed from Saturday due to heavy rain, with RB's Yuki Tsunoda a stunning third and Alpine's Esteban Ocon fourth.
The race was brought forward to start at 1230 Brazil time (1630CET), leaving several teams in a race to repair badly-damaged cars.
Formula One championship leader Verstappen, who has a five-place grid drop for an engine change, was only 12th when the second phase of qualifying was halted with 46 seconds remaining.
Verstappen leads Norris, winner of the Saturday 100km sprint at Interlagos, by 44 points with four grands prix and a sprint remaining.
New Zealand's Liam Lawson qualified fifth for RB with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc sixth and Alex Albon seventh for Williams despite a big crash in the final phase while second on the timesheets.
The car was seriously damaged in a major blow for Williams, who also had Argentine rookie Franco Colapinto spin into the tyre wall with eight minutes and 50 seconds remaining of the first phase.
Norris had flirted with disaster in that same phase, going through by the skin of his teeth in 15th place after pushing Mercedes' seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton into the bottom five.
"The car was undriveable," complained Hamilton, a three-times winner in Brazil, over the team radio after qualifying 16th.
Verstappen was fastest in phase one as drivers battled spray and slippery conditions but his hopes of damage limitation were soon dashed.
Sainz spin
Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, winner of the previous race in Mexico, brought out the red flags again when he spun into the barriers with five minutes and 51 seconds remaining.
That also left Norris in danger, in 11th place with more rain coming, but the Briton was at the front of the pitlane queue to go out on intermediates when the session resumed.
Norris went third and then fastest before Aston Martin's Lance Stroll went off and brought another halt to proceedings, with double yellows first waved before eventual reds that caught out Red Bull.
"The car hits the wall, it needs to be a straight red," fumed Verstappen of that stoppage. "I don't understand why it needs to take 30-40 seconds for a red flag to come out.
"Honestly, I let it go. It's so stupid anyway to talk about. It's ridiculous."
Norris then made absolutely sure of pole in the final phase with a time of one minute 23.405 seconds, with Russell putting in a 1:23.578 to take his place alongside.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri qualified eighth with Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso ninth, despite crashing in Q3 and triggering another red flag period, and Stroll 10th.
Red Bull's Sergio Perez qualified 13th and Sainz 14th.
Sunday's session started at 0730 local time (1130CET), even earlier than the 1984 US Grand Prix in Dallas, where the pre-race warm-up was scheduled for 0745 local and French driver Jacques Laffite turned up still in his pyjamas.
