NURBURGRING (Germany) - AUSTRALIAN Mark Webber produced a perfectly-judged performance in capricious weather on Saturday to grab his maiden Formula One pole position for Sunday's German Grand Prix.

On a day of unpredictable cold, sometimes wet and dry conditions, the 32-year-old Red Bull driver stayed out of trouble and made light of all the problems to outpace his rivals with a best lap of one minute and 32.230 seconds in the top-ten shootout. He took pole after 128 previous efforts in Grands Prix during which he had qualified second four times. On Sunday, he will seek his first win after three times finishing as runner-up this year.

'It was awesome, to do that at last,' he said. 'It was so chaotic out there today! So, to deliver a time when it was very, very chaotic like that, when it really counted, was very important for me.'

Watched by his father Alan, from Queanbeyan, in New South Wales, Webber drove flawlessly in the treacherous wet-and-dry conditions to outpace his young Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel and the two standard-setting Brawn GP cars.

He finished on top ahead of Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello, himself a rain expert, in the leading Brawn, with championship leader Briton Jenson Button third in the second Brawn car. Vettel, tipped to be the 'new Michael Schumacher' was fourth on home soil in front of his army of fans.

Vettel said: 'I'm not frustrated, but it was possible to go better. The last lap I had wasn't magnificent so... I blame myself, not the car.'

Button, pleased to join Barrichello in the top three, said: 'That session was madness but it was good fun. It's great for us to be in the top three. Tomorrow is going to be an interesting one. The weather looks similar to today so it's a little bit of luck, but also looking at what everyone else is doing and trying to make the best out of the situation - who knows?'

Defending world champion Lewis Hamilton qualified fifth for McLaren Mercedes and so ended a run of qualifying flops thanks to several new parts on his car, notably a new front wing section.

He said: 'We won't take it for granted but we're going to enjoy it. The guys have worked so hard and it's so much better. It's a great result for us. I think it's going to rain tomorrow - I would just really like to get the points for the team.'

His McLaren team-mate Finn Heikki Kovalainen was sixth ahead of German Adrian Sutil of Force India, in their first top ten position, Brazilian Felipe Massa and his Ferrari team-mate Finn Kimi Raikkonen with Brazilian Nelson Piquet 10th for Renault. -- AFP

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