Button suffers as Rubens claims pole

Barrichello's team-mate Jenson Button will start a disastrous 14th following a rain-wrecked qualifying session. The championship leader's position equals his worst performance of the season in Belgium when he crashed out on the opening lap after an accident with Renault's Romain Grosjean.

Although the 29-year-old safely made it through the opening 20-minute Q1 that accounted for another of his title rivals in Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel, he struggled in Q2.

The second qualifying period was red flagged after just two minutes and 36 seconds when Tonio Liuzzi suffered a sizeable crash in his Force India.

Under leaden skies and heavy rain, race stewards delayed the re-start for 71 minutes until conditions finally improved.

For Button, though, the wait was far from worth it as he failed to hook up his Brawn GP with the circuit.

"The start of the session we had way too much understeer and I couldn't do anything with it, and then on lap three the rear started going away," Button said.

"We made a mistake not putting intermediate tyres on at the end but it's a collective decision, it's a team effort."

Barrichello, who trails Button by 14 points, has never won at this track in 16 starts, with his best finish a mere third.

Toyota's Jarno Trulli will start fourth and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen fifth.