Sebastian Vettel further emphasised his credentials as a potential back-to-back World Champion on Saturday when he claimed pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver lapped the 5.073km Marina Bay Street Circuit in a time of one minute 44.381 seconds to go 0.351s faster than team-mate Mark Webber.
McLaren's Jenson Button was third fastest with a time of 1:44.804s, with team-mate Lewis Hamilton just five one thousandths of a second slower in fourth.
Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso, winner of last year's race and Vettel's nearest challenger in the title race - the Spaniard albeit 112 points adrift - lines up fifth quickest ahead of his team-mate Felipe Massa.
Mercedes GP pair Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher start seventh and eighth respectively, while the team-by-team pattern continued as Force India pair Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta in turn qualified ninth and 10th.
Vettel could become the youngest driver in history to secure back-to-back titles if the race result goes his way, yet there was no evidence of nerves from the 24-year-old German in the hour-long session.
He extended his qualifying record for the season to 11 poles in 14 races with his first flying lap of Q3 and subsequently made no effort to try and improve his time.
Webber was able to knock Hamilton off the front row as the Briton was poised for his fifth P2 start in succession.
However, a puncture sustained in Q2 limited the McLaren star to only one run in the top-10 shoot-out in order to save a set of the faster supersoft tyres.
The Q2 session was red-flagged after six of the 15 minutes due to Kamui Kobayashi ploughing into a barrier at turn 10 after he had hit a raised kerb through the chicane.
The impact lifted his Sauber a few feet into the air, the car then landing with a thud, and with no time to correct his line before careering straight on and out of qualifying, leaving the Japanese in 17th.
Team-mate Sergio Perez starts 11th, the Mexican ousted from the top 10 at the death by Di Resta.
Like team-mate Sutil and Schumacher, the Scot opted not to set a time in Q3 and instead save tyres for what is likely to be a three-stop race.
Following his travails on Friday when he only managed seven timed laps due to a number of issues, Di Resta performed superbly to make it into the top 10.
Williams finally showed signs of life with Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado 12th and 13th, with the Toro Rossos of Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersuari sandwiching 15th-placed Bruno Senna (Renault).
For the first time this season the Renault of Vitaly Petrov failed to make it out of the initial 20-minute session, with the Russian dropping to 18th after Senna's last-gasp effort knocked his team-mate out.
It was Petrov's worst qualifying performance since the Korean Grand Prix last year, finishing a staggering 3.5secs behind Vettel, who topped Q1, and a second off Senna.
The Lotuses, Virgins and Hispanias take up the final six spots on the grid, with Vitantonio Liuzzi bringing up the rear, although within the required 107% time.
Describing his satisfaction of driving around the Singapore circuit, Vettel said: "It's an exceptional track.
"Either you like it or hate it, with a lot of thinking going on, and if you operate on the limit then it's difficult to get it right every single corner.
"It's so easy to lose time, not just a couple of hundredths, but a couple of tenths. It's a great challenge."
Vettel's latest pole allowed him to move within three of equalling Nigel Mansell's 1992 record for number of poles in a season. However, he said he is not yet eyeing that particular record.
Exceptional
Vettel said: "That was pretty exceptional. Nigel had an incredible year, and although we're not doing too bad, it's wrong to start thinking about those things.
"The focus is on the race. We focus on the moment to get everything right every single time, which sounds easy, but not every weekend."
Webber declared himself as "overall satisfied", and although very quick in the first two sectors felt it was a front-row place gained rather than a pole lost.
He added: "This is a challenging venue, and one of my best Saturday sessions, which has put me in a good place for the race tomorrow."
Button said: "For me the lap was good - both my laps actually.
"Last night I didn't expect to be here, but we made quite a lot of improvements overnight, and the pace has been good all day.
"I'm happy to be third, but the worry tomorrow is I've not driven with high fuel, so we'll have to see and try make the best of it."
Times
1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1min 44.381secs, 2 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:44.732, 3 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren 1:44.804, 4 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:44.809, 5 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:44.874, 6 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:45.800, 7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:46.013, 8 Michael Schumacher (Ger) Mercedes GP No Time, 9 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India No Time, 10 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India No Time, 11 Sergio Perez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 1:47.616, 12 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Williams 1:48.082, 13 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:48.270, 14 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:48.634, 15 Bruno Senna (Bra) Renault 1:48.662, 16 Jaime Alguersuari (Spa) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:49.862, 17 Kamui Kobayashi (Jpn) Sauber-Ferrari No Time, 18 Vitaly Petrov (Rus) Renault 1:49.835, 19 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) Lotus F1 1:50.948, 20 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Lotus F1 1:51.012, 21 Timo Glock (Ger) Virgin Racing 1:52.154, 22 Jerome d'Ambrosio (Bel) Virgin Racing 1:52.363, 23 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) HRT-F1 1:52.404, 24 Vitantonio Liuzzi (Ita) HRT-F1 1:52.810
Note: Vitantonio Liuzzi received a five-place grid penalty after an incident in the Italian Grand Prix, however as he qualified in 24th place he remains there.
