Vettel claimed the 13th pole position of his career by setting qualifying's fastest lap which was delayed to the day of the race due to torrential rain.

The safety car was deployed once for two separate accidents on the first lap involving Vitaly Petrov and Nico Hülkenberg as well as Felipe Massa and Vitantonio Liuzzi.

[5] Alonso had won the preceding Italian and Singapore Grand Prix to be eleven points behind Webber and said the season's final four rounds would challenge him mentally believing a top-three result and figuring his championship position in Abu Dhabi was vital.

[8] Webber admitted Ferrari's recent form had given them momentum but felt Red Bull would be competitive in Japan, saying they needed to extract performance.

[11] Hamilton, who was intrigued to learn he remained in the championship battle after failing to finish the previous two Grands Prix, sought a victory duel in Japan and hoped for a marked improvement.

[12] His teammate Button said he acknowledged a potential championship win even though he was 25 points behind Webber and felt the Suzuka Circuit where he had not achieved a race victory suited his driving style.

Ferrari modified the F10's diffuser to include a small omega shaped wing on the deformable structure's top to bring about a slight increase in downforce.

[15][16] Having driven one of its cars at the preceding Singapore Grand Prix, local driver Sakon Yamamoto replaced Christian Klien as partner for Bruno Senna at Hispania Racing.

[21][24] With three minutes remaining,[24] Hamilton's teammate Button ran over the kerbs at Denger One turn but regained control of his car and avoided the barrier by stopping in the gravel.

[27] Webber, Kubica, Alonso, Ferrari's Felipe Massa, Button, Renault's Vitaly Petrov, Schumacher, Sutil and Hülkenberg made up second through tenth.

[29] Due to rivers running across multiple turns and puddles causing aquaplaning, teams were reluctant to send drivers onto the circuit and two competitors set lap times.

[28] Inclement weather continued to disrupt the Saturday's proceedings as qualifying was delayed three times every half an hour while the safety car was deployed several times to assess the conditions before being ultimately rescheduled for Sunday morning by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)'s race director Charlie Whiting on safety grounds arising from fading light levels.

[b][31][32] Many figures in Formula One agreed with the decision to postpone qualifying, with drivers such as Button, Hamilton, Schumacher and Vettel noting that they would not be able to control their vehicles in torrential rain had the session be run.

[32][33] Williams technical director Sam Michael proposed the re-introduction of slower monsoon tyres to enable drivers to drive in severe weather.

[20] All vehicles were not required to enter parc fermé conditions with the FIA conducting surveillance via CCTV cameras installed in every garage.

Rosberg felt his car was balanced and was seventh with the Williams duo of Barrichello and Hülkenberg (who complained he was blocked by Hamilton on his last timed lap into the chicane) eighth and ninth.

[1][42] 12th-placed Massa could not qualify higher due to slower cars impeding him and causing him to make an error at Casio Triangle turn during his first timed lap.

[1][38] Petrov in 13th was 1.2 seconds slower than teammate Kubica,[1] with Kobayashi looking set to advance to the final session before a minor error at Casio Triangle corner left him 14th.

[42] Sutil, 15th, reported he could not generate tyre temperature,[1] and Alguersuari used a different car mechanical balance to claim 16th and qualify higher than his teammate Sébastien Buemi for the fourth time in the previous six Grands Prix.

Di Grassi in 21st qualified higher than Virgin Racing teammate Glock for the second time in 2010 in 22nd after the latter was dissatisfied with his car's setup.

[1][2] The Williams team filed a protest with the FIA stewards for Hamilton's perceived blocking of Hülkenberg in the final qualifying session.

[48] His teammate Schumacher overtook Barrichello's hard-to-handle car at the final chicane with some minor contact for sixth position and maintained the place into the first corner.

While Sutil went fastest overall in the second half of the lap, suggesting newer hard compound tyres had more performance, no leading drivers decided to do pit stops.

This was due to there being half the race left and both Red Bull cars were eight seconds ahead of Alonso and could remain on track to react to any of Ferrari's actions.

[48][52] As a consequence of his strategy allowing him to drive on the same set of tyres for longer on the circuit,[44] Button was now leading and had to pull away from Alonso and Hamilton to remain ahead of both drivers following his pit stop.

[49] The Red Bull duo were informed of the possibility of Button not making his pit stop until the final lap in order to slow them and put them under pressure from Alonso and Hamilton.

[44] Sutil was close behind Barrichello in ninth when an oil pipe in his car failed into 130R turn, causing smoke to billow from his rear of his engine.

[48][52] As Rosberg drove uphill towards the high-speed left-hand Esses on lap 48,[44] the car's left-rear wheel detached due to a possible hub failure, causing him to strike the turn five tyre wall at approximately 210 km/h (130 mph).

[54] At the front, Vettel finished first to achieve his third victory of the season and the eighth of his career in a time of 1 hour, 30 minutes and 27.323 seconds at an average speed of 203.948 km/h (126.727 mph).

They deemed Petrov responsible for causing the accident with Hülkenberg and imposed a five-place grid penalty on him for the following Korean Grand Prix.