Mark Webber beat Red Bull team-mate Sebastian
Vettel to pole position at the Japanese Grand Prix.
The Australian was 0.174 seconds quicker than Vettel,
who had a Kers power-boost system failure, costing
him in the region of 0.3secs a lap.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was third from Lotus's
Romain Grosjean.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, Vettel's closest title rival,
was a poor eighth, three places behind team-mate
Felipe Massa.
Alonso needs to finish eighth or better if Vettel wins on
Sunday to keep the championship alive until the next
race in India.
The Spaniard is behind Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg
in sixth and Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg, who again
impressed with seventh place.
Lotus's Kimi Raikkonen and McLaren's Jenson Button
completed the top 10.
Webber's pole was his first of the season, and the first
time he has qualified ahead of Vettel in 2013.
Webber is leaving F1 at the end of the season to join
Porsche in endurance racing. He loves Suzuka and said
that if he could win here in his final season "it'd be
awesome, absolutely special".
"It's a great track, we all love driving here. The laps
weren't too bad. You always want a little bit more. It
was pretty good.
"Sebastian had a problem so a little bit of a hollow
result. But happy to be on pole and you've got to grab
the opportunity when you can."
"We did have a problem but I am not a big fan of this,
'without this, with this', it is always an unknown," said
Vettel. "The car was phenomenal and you don't get
many days like that when the car feels great and you
can really push it to the limit. I enjoyed it."
Alonso said: "More or less I was eighth, ninth all
weekend so it is not unexpected. It has not been a
good weekend for me and I need to do better
tomorrow."
He said the death of Maria De Villota on Friday had
been a blow for him.
"Yesterday was a shock, we do practice, you take the
helmet off and they tell you this terrible news, you
never expect this, especially with her she fought so
much this last year and she was full of life. It's tough."
Scot Paul Di Resta will start 12th, behind McLaren's
Sergio Perez and ahead of the Williams of the
impressive Valtteri Bottas, who was two places in front
of team-mate Pastor Maldonado.
Force India's Adrian Sutil was knocked out in the first
session and took 17th. The German will start from the
back because of a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox
change required following a crash in final practice.
Marussia's Max Chilton put in his best performance of
the season in the back-of-the-grid battle to out-qualify
both Caterhams as well as team-mate Jules Bianchi.
The Englishman will start 19th after beating Charles Pic
by 0.236 seconds, with Giedo van der Garde and Jules
Bianchi bringing up the rear.
"It was amazing," said Chilton, who is in his first season
in F1. "The factory put in so much work all year and
sometimes we just don't get a look-in. To out-qualify
both Caterhams on a track we don't know and both
Caterhams do, I'm just really happy.
"It's taken me a while to get into F1 and there were a
few times earlier in the season when I wasn't happy
with my driving. But since the August break it's really
come together."
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