By David Ornstein
Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel produced a stunning qualifying lap to take pole position at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The 23-year-old German is one of four men in contention for the title ahead of Sunday's season-ending race.
McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, who still has a slim chance of taking the crown, will start in second and championship leader Fernando Alonso of Ferrari third.
Vettel's team-mate Mark Webber, second in the standings, is fifth on the grid, a place behind McLaren's Jenson Button.
If the drivers finish the race in the same positions as they start, Alonso will clinch a third Formula 1 world title and his first for Ferrari.
The Spaniard leads the standings on 246 points, eight clear of Webber, 15 ahead of Vettel and 24 clear of Hamilton.
There are 25 points for a win, 18 for second, 15 for third, 12 for fourth, 10 for fifth, eight for sixth, six for seventh, four for eighth, two for ninth and one for 10th.
"We start from pole, it couldn't be better," said a beaming Vettel after clinching his 10th pole of the season. "It was a tough qualifying session. It was very close with Lewis especially. We are looking forward to tomorrow and seeing what happens.
"I saw some statistics the other day about how many poles some drivers had got in a season, guys like Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Michael Michael - they are all up there.
"With 10 poles I am not at the top so maybe we could work on that next year. But 10 poles in qualifying in one season is a great effort and shows how good the car is."
Alonso arrived at the Yas Marina Circuit in control of his own destiny but the real momentum was with Vettel, who won in Brazil last Sunday and set the fastest time in Saturday's third and final free practice session.
Webber also had cause for optimism after he was only a tenth of a second slower than Vettel in FP3, while Hamilton showed that his car was more competitive than in recent races by topping the timesheets in Friday practice.
It made for an intriguing backdrop and within minutes of the big four heading out for Q1 - a 20 minute session that sees the slowest seven cars eliminated - it was clear there was precious little to chose between them.
Vettel and Hamilton looked particularly sharp as they traded fastest laps, with Alonso and Webber snapping at their heels.
Alonso managed to post a lap of 1:40.170 to jump above Vettel (1:40.318) and Hamilton (1:40.335), and with Webber recording a 1:40.690 the quartet were separated by just five tenths of a second.
The Mercedes of Nico Rosberg was also in the mix after going round in 1:40.231 but Torro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi, Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen of Lotus, Virgin pair Timo Glock and Lucas di Grassi and the Hispania's of Buno Senna and Christian Klien failed to make the cut.
