Hamilton claims pole

The pole was the first for McLaren since Hamilton took the top slot in Canada in June last year, 27 races ago, and came in the team's 700th grand prix.

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, who became the sport's youngest double world champion in Japan last weekend at the age of 24, qualified second and 0.222 slower.

McLaren's Jenson Button was third and Mark Webber fourth in the other Red Bull.

Hamilton's feat ended Red Bull's hopes of beating the record of 24 successive poles set by Williams in 1992/93.

It also provided an immediate reply to those increasingly vocal critics questioning his state of mind in a nightmare season.

"It's probably one of the first positives I've had in a while," said a muted Hamilton, who has been absent from the podium in the past five races in a season full of crashes and controversies.

The 2008 world champion professed himself happy, even if he scarcely smiled and his voice reflected no great joy, in the post-qualifying news conference.

"I am very proud of what the team have been able to achieve in the last few races," said the Briton who has been out-performed by Japanese GP winner Button in the latter half of the season.

Vettel had been on pole for 12 of the previous 15 races and, despite the rare setback, can still beat Nigel Mansell's 1992 record of 14 in a single season.

The German had beaten Button by nine thousandths of a second to pole at Suzuka and said it was no surprise to see McLaren ahead.

"You could see they were a fair chunk ahead of everybody else (in practice)," he said.

"Once again we pushed them very, very hard. I think we did a very good job in qualifying and also we saved also our prime tyres which I think will be crucial tomorrow."

Ferrari's Felipe Massa, who has clashed repeatedly with Hamilton on the track this year, qualified ahead of team mate Fernando Alonso with the two in fifth and sixth places respectively.

Mercedes Nico Rosberg qualified seventh and Russian Vitaly Petrov joined him on the fourth row for Renault.