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Red Bull’s titlechasing Sebastian Vettel claimed pole position on Saturday for Sunday’s championship-deciding season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, outpacing another title rival Briton Lewis Hamilton of McLaren by just 0.031 seconds.

Championship leader Fernando Alonso of Ferrari was third fastest just three-tenths of a second behind Hamilton with 2009 champion Briton Jenson Button fourth in the second McLaren, his presence ensuring an element of uncertainty in the fight for the title on Sunday.

Australian Mark Webber, better known for his race-craft than his qualifying, was the fifth fastest driver in the second Red Bull, the last of the four title contenders. He will share the third row of the grid with sixth-placed Brazilian Felipe Massa of Ferrari.

In a thrilling and dramatic finale to a tense qualifying session at the spectacular Yas Marina Circuit, Vettel managed to find the speed to resist a determined surge from a fired-up Hamilton who drove with real elan in his own charge for pole.

It was the German’s 10^th pole of the season and the 15^th of his career and gives him an excellent opportunity of lifting the drivers’ championship on Sunday to add to the constructors’ title won by the Red Bull team last weekend in Brazil.

Another Brazilian Rubens Barrichello of Williams was seventh ahead of his old Ferrari team-mate German Michael Schumacher, the 41-year-old seven-times champion maintaining his late-season improvement for Mercedes by taking eighth place ahead of his compatriot and team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Russian rookie Vitaly Petrov took the final top ten spot for Renault on an evening of high anxiety for the teams and their drivers which offered few clues or pointers to the outcome of a magnificent roller-coaster season.

In Q1, as the sun descended and the lights came on, all of the title contenders were fastest at different times, apart from Webber, but they were all content to clock competitive times and proceed to Q2.

By this time, the track temperature was falling from an earlier high of 41 degrees Celsius to 32 degrees and the ambient air temperature to 27 degrees. This was more comfortable for drivers, cars and spectators after a torrid day of heat and humidity.

The next mini-session, Q2, saw Alonso and Button posting fast early times followed by Schumacher and Rosberg. By midway, ten drivers were in the 1;40’s before Vettel, on super-soft tyres, broke through with a 1:40.318 to go top.

All this left Hamilton down in 17^th and without a quick lap, after a half-spin at Turn One, where he ran wide over the kerbs.

As the tension rose, Hamilton rejoined from a pit stop and almost tangled with Massa as he cut across his line before delivering a lap that saw him climb, with relief, to second with barely 30 seconds remaining. A corner marker was the only casualty of Hamilton’s charge.

In the final flurry, he was pushed down to fifth ahead of sixth-placed Alonso, but through to the top ten shootout along with the rest. Vettel was fastest, ahead of Button, Rosberg and Webber.

All this left Pole Robert Kubica of Renault to miss the cut in 11^th place for the first time this season, out-qualified by Petrov for the first time this season.