Sebastian Vettel rains in Brazil with his 45th pole

Spray away: Sebastian Vettel adapted better than most. Photograph: AP

Miserable, wet conditions shrouded Interlagos throughout all three qualifying sessions but it was four-time world champion Vettel who again came out on top. In the unstoppable Red Bull, Vettel finished six tenths of a second quicker than Nico Rosberg (Mercedes), with Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso more than a second back in third.

Scotland’s Paul Di Resta, facing a battle to hold on to his Force India drive for next season, just missed out on a place in Q3 but qualified in 11th place.

Following a wet final practice session, the rain relented prior to the start of qualifying, allowing the track to dry in places. Thirty minutes ahead of the first qualifying period, however, light rain again began to fall, resulting in a queue of cars in the pit lane as the clock counted down towards the start.

Lewis Hamilton was the first to cross the line with a lap of one minute 25.342 seconds, a time that was unable to be bettered as the conditions steadily worsened and he will start fifth today.

For what will be his 215th and final grands prix before switching to Porsche’s sportscar programme for next year, Mark Webber will line up fourth in his Red Bull. Nine minutes into the initial 20-minute run the rain’s intensity was such that all 22 cars headed back into the pits knowing they would be unable to improve. The final few minutes, with the rain ebbing and flowing, saw a number of the backmarkers take to the track. Lotus driver Heikki Kovalainen was the big winner, vaulting himself away from potential danger up to fifth, whilst Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne clambered out of the bottom six.

That dropped Pastor Maldonado to 17th, the Venezuelan in his last race for Williams ahead of a potential move to Lotus that could be announced today.

Sauber’s Esteban Gutierrez will line up 18th.

Come the start of the 15-minute middle session, fortunes fluctuated depending on the ebb and flow of rain and whether there was enough heat in the intermediate tyres.

Kovalainen just missed out on a place in Q3 by 0.015sec to Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, the Finn starting tenth ahead of Di Resta.

Williams’ Valtteri Bottas lines up 13th ahead of Sergio Perez, who spun into a wall on his final attempt, but at a time when the rain was heavier.

Explaining the difficulties in qualifying, and the potential dangers for the race, McLaren’s Jenson Button said: “We struggled because there was so much water, and we haven’t run when the conditions were this bad. We’ve been trying to save tyres all weekend for qualifying, but we made the wrong call. If it’s wet like this on Sunday it’s a horrible race because you can’t see anything. Hopefully it won’t be all under the safety car.”

It was at that point the rain began to hammer down, forcing the FIA to delay Q3 by 40 minutes given the safety concerns with so much water on the track. The conditions meant the drag reduction systems on the remaining ten cars had to be disabled to ease their top speed.

The full Pirelli wet tyres were also used initially, and with banker laps set, the call was made to switch to the intermediate tyres.

Not for the first time this season, Vettel then blitzed his rivals, with Rosberg and Alonso left trailing by some distance, along with the other seven drivers.