Australian Mark Webber led a Red Bull front row sweep on Saturday and denied team mate and Formula One championship leader Sebastian Vettel a fifth successive Japanese Grand Prix pole position.
Vettel who may clinch his fourth successive world title at the age of 26 on Sunday, if he wins and Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso finishes lower than eighth, had problems with his car’s kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) and had to settle for second.
The German, out-qualified by Webber for the first time this season, will still be favourite to win given the championship situation, and the likelihood of team orders.
Alonso, 77 points behind Vettel with five races remaining, qualified only eighth on a sunny afternoon at the Honda-owned figure-of-eight Suzuka circuit.
His time of one minute 30.915 seconds was 0.174 quicker than Vettel’s best effort. Saturday might be as good as it gets for the Australian but he was not about to roll over without a fight.
Lewis Hamilton, for Mercedes, and Romain Grosjean in a Lotus, share the second row while Ferrari’s Brazilian Felipe Massa starts fifth at a circuit where he was runner-up last year.
Nico Rosberg qualified sixth for Mercedes with fellow-German Nico Hulkenberg seventh for Sauber.
Webber’s 12th career pole also ended a run of three poles in three races for Vettel, who has won at Suzuka three times in the last four years.
Vettel was fastest on Friday but struggled with KERS problems on Saturday morning, when he sat out the end of final practice while the team changed the battery.
The problem then returned for the final phase of qualifying, even if the KERS was re-set and working on his second run.
Fernando Alonso’s main focus would be on scoring more points than Mercedes, who are only a point behind second placed Ferrari in the constructors’ standings.
Qualifying was halted in the first phase for five minutes when Jean-Eric Vergne pulled over at the exit to the hairpin with his Toro Rosso’s brakes on fire, with a cloud of smoke billowing up as marshals put out the flames.
Germany’s Adrian Sutil, who crashed in final practice and picked up a five place grid penalty for a gearbox change, failed to progress beyond the first stage.
Mexican Sergio Perez whose McLaren seat remains uncertain for 2014 took the 11th spot with teammate Jenson Button in 10th.
Qualifying was halted in the first phase for five minutes when red flags came out after Jean-Eric Vergne pulled over with his Toro Rosso’s brakes on fire.