Vettel on sensational pole

His team-mate Felipe Massa leapt to third, also with his final quick lap, whereas Mark Webber in the sister Red Bull was unable to set a final quick lap and starts fourth.

With Red Bull and Ferrari again locking out the top four - as they had in second and third practice - reigning champion Jenson Button found enough to push McLaren team-mate and standings leader Lewis Hamilton into fifth.

Robert Kubica claimed seventh spot on the grid for Renault ahead of Rubens Barrichello. His Williams team-mate Nico Hulkenberg made it through to Q3 at the expense of legendary driver Michael Schumacher, but was unable to break out from 10th.

Young German Nico Rosberg, team-mate of Schumacher at Mercedes, found a late lap in Q2 to progress and will begin Sunday's race in ninth.

Schumacher had made a small mistake on his final flying lap, which allowed Rosberg then Hulkenberg to sneak ahead of him, and will start alongside Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber.

Following them on the grid, and also eliminated in the second segment, were Vitaly Petrov of Renault, Adrian Sutil - who had reported big problems with handling his Force India - Sauber's Pedro de la Rosa and the Toro Rossos of Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi.

Lotus won the battle of the backmarkers with Jarno Trulli 18th and Heikki Kovalainen 19th.

Tonio Liuzzi was the 'big-name' casualty in the bottom seven after running wide on the final corner on to the wet astroturf and sliding down the main straight and into the wall that runs alongside the pitlane.

That prompted a red flag with three-quarters of Q1 remaining, his Force India sustaining extensive damage to its front left and rear and showering the straight with debris. His time left him 22nd by the end, ahead of Sakon Yamamoto, who has taken Karun Chandhok's place at Hispania for the weekend, and Lucas Di Grassi, whose Virgin was not able to set a time due to a malfunctioning gearbox.

In the other Virgin, Timo Glock pipped Bruno Senna of Hispania to 20th.