SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, Belgium — Mark Webber set his sights on maintaining his Formula One championship lead after taking pole position for the Belgian Grand Prix on Saturday.
Webber's fifth pole of the year put the Red Bull driver in prime position for a fifth victory to extend his four-point lead in the drivers' standings. The Austrian team will start from No. 1 on the grid for the 12th time in 13 races.
Webber went around the slick Spa circuit in 1 minute, 45.778 seconds to edge Lewis Hamilton of McLaren by just under one-tenth of a second.
"We knew the first lap was going to be pretty important since around here it is so unpredictable," Webber said. "In qualifying, every lap is important and you never know, especially in this company."
Robert Kubica of Renault starts third while Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull fills out the second row.
Jenson Button of McLaren goes from fifth, while Fernando Alonso of Ferrari will start a disappointing 10th after gambling on rain for Sunday's 44-lap race.
Webber, who has won two of the last three races, has 161 points. Lewis follows on 157 points, while Vettel is third with 151. Button has 147 points and Alonso 141.
After the rain-soaked practice sessions, the weather stayed dry for most of qualifying with only a light rain hampering the favorites toward the end, when Hamilton got his flying lap in to edge Kubica for a spot on the first row.
"It was easily one of those days where things could have went wrong," said Webber, who celebrated his 34th birthday on Friday. "But apart from Fernando, all the guys had normal days."
McLaren expected a 2-in-5 chance of rain Sunday, and a good chance of victory for the first time since Hamilton's win in Canada.
"The important thing is we're up there and into the fight," Hamilton said. "You have to be aggressive but cautious at the same time. We're all on the knife edge out there."
Alonso failed to emulate his practice pace — when he led two of the three sessions — and finished just over 1.6 seconds off Webber's pace and 1.127 off teammate Felipe Massa, who starts from sixth.
"This is the least important qualifying of the season. I'm not worried as victory remains the objective," Alonso said. "Tomorrow will be more positive than today. Experience shows this can be a crazy race."
Kubica, meanwhile, took advantage of an aerodynamic update — a new F-duct, to clock an excellent lap at the start of the session for his best qualifying result since second at Monaco.
But Kubica's teammate Vitaly Petrov started the qualifying off with a red-flag as he slid out on his first lap.
The leaders all got through, with Vettel taking advantage of the empty track after a brief shower to set his lap in the first session.
Sauber pair Kamui Kobayashi and Pedro de la Rosa both slid off and were out of contention for the second session, while Timo Glock was also demoted five spots from 17th for a blocking infraction.
Mercedes' miserable season continued as Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg both failed to make it into the final session, placing 11th and 12th. But Schumacher is due to drop 10 paces on the starting grid for nearly forcing Rubens Barrichello into a wall in Hungary, while Rosberg will start five places lower due to a last-minute gearbox change.
"Knowing I have to go back 10 positions makes me hope for mixed weather conditions tomorrow," said Schumacher, who recorded his first of a record 91 victories here 18 years ago.
Barrichello starts his record 300th race in seventh for Williams.