One hand on title for Vettel

Sebastian Vettel inched ever closer to the 2011 Formula One World Championship on Saturday by taking pole position in Japan.

For anyone who hadn't followed Friday practice and the action this morning they wouldn't have been surprised to wake up to yet another pole position from the reigning F1 champ.

But Friday practice was all about McLaren's Jenson Button who topped all three practice sessions, while Qualifying was looking very strong for McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Both looked set for a front-row start to tomorrows race, but ultimately Vettel took pole to the their obvious surprise.

Button fell just 0.009 seconds short of Vettel's fastest time, while a messy last corner meant that Hamilton, who had topped the timing sheets after hid first run in Q3, missed out on a second run.

Hamilton who was short of time going into the final complex of corners was overtaken by both Red Bull's Mark Webber and Mercedes Michael Schumacher and simply missed the chance for a run at pole position.

Webber managed to get through to have a second run to qualify sixth, while Schumacher who cut the chicane in front of Hamilton, also missed out on a setting a timed run and will start seventh.

It was a quiet session for Ferrari with Massa starting alongside Hamilton in fourth and Alonso fifth.

The Renault's of Senna and Petrov and Japanese home favourite Kamui Kobayashi all decided to save tyres and didn't run a time in Q3, they will start eighth, ninth and tenth respectively.

Force India took eleventh and twelfth with Sutil winning the battle of the team-mates.

Rubens Barrichello was on top at Williams as they took thirteenth and fourteenth and Sebastien Buemi was fastest at Toro Rosso as they took fifteenth and sixteenth, as Sauber's Perez was unable to set a time for Sauber in Q2 and will start seventeenth.

There had also been a similar problem for Nico Rosberg's Mercedes who failed to set a time in Q1 and was eliminated with the newbie teams and will start at the back of the grid.