Sebastian Vettel claimed the 38th pole position of his career with a perfectly timed run to the front row in the final minute of a rain-affected qualifying session at Sepang Circuit.After edging through to Q2 with 15th place in the opening 20-minute segmentsaving tyres by not emerging until the closing minutesSeb also left it late in the second session. He slotted into ninth as the session headed for its final runs but then the rain that had threatened since the top of the hour arrived and any blushes were spared as the order remained largely unchanged.Once through to the top-10 shoot-out, Seb and his crew delivered a note-perfect performance. He claimed provisional pole with four minutes left in the session and then bided his time as his rivals made their moves.Ferraris Fernando Alonso was the first to take advantage of the improving track and delivered a fastest final sector of the segment to claim top spot. Vettel, though, was just clearing sector one and flying. He set fastest splits in sectors two and three to finish almost a second clear of his rivals.Felipe Massa, meanwhile, also profited at the end of the session, slipping ahead of Alonso to claim a first front-row start in three years.It was very difficult as the circuit was half dry and half wet todayso it was difficult to find the right compromise between pushing hard and also saving the tyres, said Seb afterwards. It was the right strategy to come in and change the tyres and the pace was there. It was a good session in Q3 and it was clear what we had to do, so Im pleased with the result.Its a long race tomorrow and whoever wins will have done the best job. He added. We managed to save some tyres today which will help if the race is dry, but we will see.Mark, meanwhile, will line up fifth, behind Lewis Hamilton, and admitted there was a timing miscommunication in the final minutes of qualifying.Its disappointing to finish fifth, he said. We didnt get the timing quite right in the last part of Q3, I thought I had more laps. We were quick enough, but we went too slow on the lap when we should have been going quick and it meant we didnt get a last timed lap in.The time doesnt represent how comfortable I felt in the car today and its frustrating when you put so much work in and know you could have done better, he added. Im looking forward to the race tomorrowit should be interesting with the weather.Team Principal Christian Horner said that despite a strategic miscalculation with Mark, first and fifth was a solid result given the difficult conditions.Sebastian put together a fantastic lap in tricky conditions to get the pole, he said. With Mark, it was a great shame as we thought he would be the last car to cross the line and get the last timed lap, but a miscommunication about the number of remaining laps meant that he was first car to get the chequered flag, missing a fifth lap by one second. It was a shame, but first and fifth for tomorrows race is a good starting position.That said, I dont think pole will be the deciding factor of tomorrows race; if its wet it helps with visibility, but in the event of a dry race then tyre degradation and tyre strategy will be key.

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