Red Bull/Getty Images
Sebastian Vettel stormed to pole position in wet conditions during qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix.
The world champion set a lap time of 1:26.479 to finish six tenths of a second faster than Mercedes's Nico Rosberg.
Fernando Alonso was third for Ferrari.
The start of Q3 was delayed due to the rain intensifying but the final qualifying segment of the season eventually got underway after a 40 minute delay.
Vettel seized the advantage on wet tyres but the track dried sufficiently for Intermediates to be fitted to the Q3 runners.
Mark Webber was fourth ahead of his final race, with Lewis Hamilton in fifth and Romain Grosjean sixth.
Daniel Ricciardo was seventh for Toro Rosso, while Jean-Eric Vergne, Felipe Massa and Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10.
Intermediates were used in Q2 but conditions got worse towards the end of the session. Heikki Kovalainen was narrowly edged out and will start the race from 11th place, ahead of Paul di Resta and Valtteri Bottas.
Sergio Perez was 14th, ahead of Jenson Button, but dropped it on the exit of turn five and crashed into the barriers, sustaining damage to the right hand side of his McLaren. Adrian Sutil was the other driver to be eliminated from Q2.
Conditions soon worsened after the first five minutes in Q1 with drivers struggling for grip on Intermediate tyres. Vergne, who seemed destined for an early exit, improved at the end of the session, dropping Pastor Maldonado into 17th place, ahead of Esteban Gutierrez.
At the back, Charles Pic edged out Caterham team-mate Giedo van der Garde, while Jules Bianchi beat Max Chilton in the battle between the Marussia drivers.
