Sebastian Vettel will start from pole for today's British Grand Prix after crushing his rivals in qualifying, leaving championship leader Jenson Button down in sixth.

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 had a storming win in the wet a year ago, 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 today 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.

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.

"I did the best I could," reflected Hamilton, who has now failed to make it into Q2 for the last three races. "I was pushing on that last lap, as hard as I could, but it was nothing special. We were just dead slow. "The race is over, but we'll keep fighting and hopefully put on a good show for the fans. "I've had incredible support from them. They're the ones that really get me through it."

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. A number of big guns were knocked out in the 15-minute Q2, led by Ferrari's Felipe Massa who starts 11th when he appeared on course to make the top 10 at least. BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica qualified 12th, followed by the McLaren of Heikki Kovalainen, Nelson Piquet in his Renault and the second BMW of Nick Heidfeld. Ahead of Hamilton and Buemi in the final five are Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella, Sebastien Bourdais in his Toro Rosso and Sutil.

After clinching the fourth pole of his career, third of the year and second in a row, Vettel said: "It's been a fantastic weekend so far from beginning to end. All the parts we have brought here seem to be working well, so we have made a good step forward.

"But when it comes to qualifying there is tension there, you try to do your best and you try to get a good feeling. In Q3 I had the lap of the weekend. From beginning to end it was very close to being perfect.

"I brought the lap to the chequered flag, and I was surprised by how quick I was at that stage, yet it was enough to get pole."

Vettel, currently 32 points behind Button in the standings, is at least relieved to have Button some way behind him. "He has the advantage, quite a comfortable gap," added Vettel. "We are here to win races, we're in the best position [today]... But even though he is starting sixth, he can still come back and score a lot of points."

Leading Grid Positions after Qualifying

1 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1min 19.509secs 2 Rubens Barrichello (Bra) Brawn GP 1:19.856 3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:19.868 4 Jarno Trulli (Ita) Toyota 1:20.091 5 Kazuki Nakajima (Jpn) Williams 1:20.216 6 Jenson Button (Gbr) Brawn GP 1:20.289 7 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Williams 1:20.361 8 Timo Glock (Ger) Toyota 1:20.490 9 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Ferrari 1:20.715 10 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Renault 1:20.741 11 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:18.927 12 Robert Kubica (Pol) BMW Sauber 1:19.308 13 Heikki Kovalainen (Fin) McLaren 1:19.353 14 Nelson Piquet Jr (Bra) Renault 1:19.392 15 Nick Heidfeld (Ger) BMW Sauber 1:19.448 16 Giancarlo Fisichella (Ita) Force India 1:19.802 17 Sebastien Bourdais (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:19.898 18 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:19.909 19 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) McLaren 1:19.917 20 Sebastien Buemi (Swi) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:20.236