Vettel on pole

Sebastian Vettel continued his dominance of the Japanese Grand Prix weekend by claiming pole position for today's race at Suzuka.

The Red Bull driver was the class of the field in a qualifying session postponed from yesterday due to heavy rain, posting a best time of one minute 30.785 seconds.

The German will be joined on the front row by team-mate Mark Webber, who finished less than a tenth of a second down on Vettel, who is bidding for a repeat of his victory here last year.

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton was impressive as he claimed third place in 1:31.169, although the Briton will line up eighth for the race after taking a five-place grid drop for changing his gearbox.

Hamilton's penalty means Robert Kubica will line up third on the starting grid for Renault, while Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, who trails championship leader Webber by 11 points after winning the last two races, will start fourth.

Hamilton's team-mate Jenson Button moves up to fifth a result of his team-mate's misfortune, ahead of Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) and Rubens Barrichello (Williams).

Barrichello's team-mate Nico Hulkenberg will start ninth while the second Mercedes of Michael Schumacher completes the top 10.

Vettel has been the class of the field all weekend, leading the way in Friday's two practice sessions and finishing top in both Q1 and Q2 before sealing his eighth pole position of the season.

Although Webber produced a charge on his final lap to momentarily displace Vettel at the top of the time sheets as the chequered flag came out in Q3, the German upstaged his team-mate as Vettel raised the bar to secure a deserved pole.

Today's race could be key to the outcome of the championship, with Webber, Vettel, Hamilton, Button and Alonso separated by just 25 points at the head of the drivers' standings.