Sebastian Vettel beat Jenson Button to pole position for the Japanese Grand Prix by 9 thousandths of a second today. It was an extraordinary achievement, given that the German driver had crashed and damaged his car in the first practice session on Friday and that Button had been the fastest driver in every practice session of the weekend.
But just as he has done 11 times before this year, Vettel proved he was the best in qualifying, and set the stage to win the title tomorrow.