The recently-crowned double champion secured his 15th pole of the year, and 30th of his career on Saturday, surpassing the previous record set by Nigel Mansell in 1992.
Vettel was the only driver to break into the one minute-12 second barrier, clocking a lap of the Interlagos circuit in one minute 11.918 seconds.
The 24-year-old said he had put all his effort into his final qualifying lap and admitted feeling emotional about breaking Mansell's record.
"There has been quite some talk before qualifying and this weekend about this particular record and I think the best thing was to not just think about it," said the German Red Bull driver.
"Yesterday we had a rough start to the weekend and were not 100 per cent happy with the balance but we made the right choices overnight and, going into qualifying, I was happier and enjoying the moment, enjoying the laps I had.
"I was happy with the first lap in Q3 but we knew there was more to come. I put everything into the last lap.
"It was emotional when I crossed the line as I knew I had given it all. Then I had to wait quite a long time to see if the time was good enough or not."
"It took the master (Mansell) in the discipline a few races less, but this is special to me."
Red Bull boss Christian Horner added: "It's remarkable. He's done it all year. He shared the record for two weeks with Nigel Mansell - it was such a record to beat so that is something really special.
"Sebastian enjoys the statistics and it's a small bit of history for him. He should really enjoy this moment as there are some illustrious names that he now sits on top of for records for poles in one year."