Vettel on pole at Silverstone

Vettel finished nearly four tenths of a second quicker than Rubens Barrichello in his Brawn GP, and Mark Webber who missed out on an all-Red Bull Racing front row by 0.012secs.

As for world champion Lewis Hamilton, who thrilled his fans a year ago with a storming win in the wet, he qualified a career low 19th as his wretched season slipped to a new low.

Button was left languishing by almost 0.8secs behind Vettel as the Briton also has Toyota's Jarno Trulli and Kazuki Nakajima in his Williams ahead of him, the Japanese qualifying a career high of sixth.

For the 29-year-old, who goes into the sell-out race at Silverstone on Sunday with a 26-point lead in the championship after winning six of this season's first seven races, it was his worst qualifying run of the season.

Behind Button, the top 10 is completed by Williams' Nico Rosberg, Timo Glock for Toyota, the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso for Renault.

As for Hamilton, it was a day to forget, with his chances wrecked by an accident late on in the initial 20-minute qualifying run by an accident involving friend Adrian Sutil in his Force India.

Sutil at least climbed out of the cockpit of his car unharmed in the wake of a shunt that saw him slam sideways into a tyre wall. Entering Abbey, Sutil suffered a brake issue as his car careered across the grass and then gravel before finally hitting the tyres. The force of the impact was such Sutil bounced off the wall before finally coming to rest.

It was a couple of minutes before the German clambered away from the wreckage before then being taken to the track medical centre for examination where he was given the all clear. The accident immediately led to the session being red flagged with just 24 seconds left, ending Hamilton's prospects of completing one final hot lap.

It left the 24-year-old stranded 19th, with only Sebastien Buemi slower in his Toro Rosso, and a slow-down lap in which the Briton waved to his fans on his return to the pits.