Barrichello, who trails championship leader Button by 14 points heading into the penultimate race of the season, topped Mark Webber from Red Bull in the closing seconds of the marathon qualifying session at Interlagos which lasted more than two and a half hours. The 37-year-old Barrichello lapped the 2.677- mile circuit in one minute, 19.576 seconds for his first Formula One pole since the 2004 Brazilian GP.

"I am very, very happy with the situation, and it is great to see that all the people stayed to see it because they went through a heavy period of rain," said Barrichello, who delighted his home crowd after claiming his first pole in 88 grand prix.

Barrichello was the only one of the three championship contenders remaining to qualify in the top-10.

"It was a great drive, and it may be that we have less fuel than them, but it is much better to start at the front and have your own race pace than be towards the middle of the pack," Barrichello added.

Button was knocked out of the second qualifying stint (Q2), and had to settle for a disappointing 14th starting position. With more than 12 minutes remaining in Q2, miserable track conditions forced a 71-minute delay in the session.

"We had way too much understeer at the start of the session, and I couldn't do anything with it," Button said. "On lap three, the rear started going away and that was it. We made a mistake I think not putting [intermediate tires] on at the end."

Button will clinch the title in Brazil if he finishes third or better, or Vettel has a result lower than second and Barrichello finishes worse than fourth.

Vettel also endured a frustrating session, as he was eliminated in Q1 and wound up with a 16th starting spot.

"I think I went to the pool and not the racetrack today," a disgusted Vettel said. "Obviously, it's extremely disappointing. That's life."

Vettel kept his titles hopes alive two weeks ago when he won the Japanese Grand Prix and moved to within 16 points of Button.

Webber qualified second, while Adrian Sutil from Force India took the third spot. Toyota's Jarno Trulli and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top- five.

Lewis Hamilton from McLaren will start 18th after qualifying wreaked havoc for last year's world champion.

"Today was one of the worst qualifying sessions I can remember," Hamilton said. "Our car didn't feel good at all, for both Heikki [Kovalainen] and me. We couldn't even go flat-out along the straights. That's how little grip we had."