Japanese GP: Vettel storms to fourth pole in a row at Suzuka

The world champion led the way in Q2, then set a 1m30.839s early in Q3.

Vettel was set to improve further before Kimi Raikkonen spun his Lotus into the Spoon gravel, causing a middle sector yellow flag when all the top 10 were trying to improve.

Mark Webber completed Red Bull's first front row sweep of 2012, 0.2 seconds down on his team-mate.

Home hero Kamui Kobayashi will start third. He was fourth fastest for Sauber, but will gain a place when third-placed Jenson Button is given his gearbox change penalty.

Both Button's McLaren team-mate Lewis Hamilton and world championship leader Fernando Alonso appeared to be stymied by the Raikkonen yellow. Alonso's Ferrari was only seventh, ahead of Raikkonen and Hamilton.

Ferrari was already struggling for pace in Japan, with Felipe Massa unable to do better than 11th.

Romain Grosjean was fifth for Lotus, with Sergio Perez underlining Sauber's pace in sixth.

Of the Force Indias, only Nico Hulkenberg made it to Q3 - a 0.055s gap between him and Paul di Resta in Q2 leaving the Scot 12th. But the German has also received a gearbox-change penalty and did not do a Q3 flying lap.

Mercedes had been centre of attention in the week but its on-track performance was an anti-climax after Michael Schumacher's retirement announcement.

The seven-time champion waited until the final seconds of Q1 to set a time and only just scraped through in 16th, before taking 13th in Q2, two places ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg.

It was another miserable qualifying session for Bruno Senna. He got trapped behind Jean-Eric Vergne's Toro Rosso at the chicane on his last Q1 lap - prompting angry gesticulations and a slow time.

When Schumacher delivered his last-gap lap, Senna was pushed down to 18th, just behind Vergne.

Pastor Maldonado could not do much to raise Williams team spirits this time, only managing 14th.

The tail-end pack started with Heikki Kovalainen's Caterham and finished with Narain Karthikeyan's HRT as usual, but things were shaken up in between, with Timo Glock and Pedro de la Rosa ahead of Charles Pic and Vitaly Petrov.

Pos  Driver                Team                 Time            Gap   
 1.  Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m30.839s
 2.  Mark Webber           Red Bull-Renault     1m31.090s  + 0.251
 3.  Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m31.294s  + 0.451
 4.  Kamui Kobayashi       Sauber-Ferrari       1m31.700s  + 0.861
 5.  Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m31.989s  + 1.059
 6.  Sergio Perez          Sauber-Ferrari       1m32.022s  + 1.183
 7.  Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m32.114s  + 1.275
 8.  Kimi Raikkonen        Lotus-Renault        1m32.208s  + 1.369
 9.  Lewis Hamilton        McLaren-Mercedes     1m32.327s  + 1.488
10.  Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes no time
Q2 cut-off time: 1m32.272s                                   Gap **
11.  Felipe Massa          Ferrari              1m32.293s  + 0.792
12.  Paul di Resta         Force India-Mercedes 1m32.327s  + 0.826
13.  Michael Schumacher    Mercedes             1m32.469s  + 0.968
14.  Pastor Maldonado      Williams-Renault     1m32.512s  + 1.011
15.  Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m32.625s  + 1.124
16.  Daniel Ricciardo      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m32.954s  + 1.453
17.  Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Ferrari   1m33.368s  + 1.867
Q1 cut-off time: 1m33.370s                                    Gap *
18.  Bruno Senna           Williams-Renault     1m33.405s  + 1.376
19.  Heikki Kovalainen     Caterham-Renault     1m34.657s  + 2.628
20.  Timo Glock            Marussia-Cosworth    1m35.213s  + 3.184
21.  Pedro de la Rosa      HRT-Cosworth         1m35.385s  + 3.356
22.  Charles Pic           Marussia-Cosworth    1m35.429s  + 3.400
23.  Vitaly Petrov         Caterham-Renault     1m35.432s  + 3.403
24.  Narain Karthikeyan    HRT-Cosworth         1m36.734s  + 4.705

107% time: 1m38.471s