Red Bull’s Mark Webber overcame hazardous wet weather to take pole position for the Malaysian Grand Prix.
The Australian switched from wet tyres to intermediates in drying conditions for the top-10 shootout to post a lap 1.3 seconds clear of the field.
Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg was second ahead of Webber’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel.
Ferrari and McLaren misjudged the weather so Jenson Button, Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton and Felipe Massa will line up 17th, 19th, 20th and 21st.
With rain beginning to fall in the first qualifying session, they stayed in the pits to monitor the conditions while their rivals posted quick times on a track that was still fairly dry.
It proved a costly mistake because the rain persisted and track conditions were even worse by the time they came out to post times. BBC Sport
With rain pouring down McLaren decided to keep their drivers back as qualifying opened and with the track worsening, Hamilton struggled.
He was only able to qualify 20th while team-mate and British compatriot Jenson Button will start 17th after becoming beached in the gravel despite reaching Q2.
Reigning world champion Button - the winner in Australia last week while Hamilton was left criticising the team over his strategy - was not alone in losing control of his car: moments before his slide Hamilton has a moment while Fernando Alonso suffered a violent triple spin as both Ferraris also failed to make it through to Q2.
They also made a hash of the opening segment, meaning Alonso will start alongside his former team-mate at McLaren and Felipe Massa will be behind them in 21st. Yahoo! Eurosport
Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel lined up third with 1m 50.789s, also on full-wets, with Adrian Sutil a strong fourth for Force India on the same rubber with 1m 50.914s.
Fifth place fell to Williams rookie Nico Hulkenberg, who went round in 1m 51.001s ahead of Robert Kubica in the Renault on 1m 51.051s. Rubens Barrichello made it a good day for Williams with the seventh best time of 1m 51.511s, with Michael Schumacher eighth on 1m 51.717s in the second Mercedes. Kamui Kobayashi gave BMW Sauber something to cheer with ninth fastest time of 1m 51.767s, and Vitantonio Liuzzi made it two Force Indias in the top 10 with 1m 52.254s. Webber was the only driver not on full wets.
Vettel had set the pace with 1m 46.828s in Q2, where drivers started out on wets but then switched to inters. The final sector resolutely refused to dry out, however, making life very difficult. Formula 1
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