The Aussie was the only man to break the 1 minute 21 second bracket, his best lap a 1m 20.981s. That put him two tenths up on Vettel, who had no KERS power boost in Q2 and Q3, and who prior to this weekend had started every race this year from P1. It was Webber's first pole since the 2010 Belgian GP.
Lewis Hamilton meanwhile was 'best of the rest', albeit disappointingly more than eight tenths further back in his McLaren on a 1m 21.961s.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso put in a late run to split the McLaren's, just three thousandths off Hamilton and 0.032 seconds up on Jenson Button in fifth. It was some consolation for the Spaniard in front of his home fans, although he had to use an extra set of tyres to accomplish the feat.
Lotus Renault GP's Vitaly Petrov will start sixth, half a second further back, and a tenth up on Nico Rosberg. Felipe Massa, who only just made it through to the pole position shoot-out ended Q3 in eighth, with Pastor Maldonado an encouraging ninth for Williams.
Michael Schumacher rounded out the top ten, electing not to even set a time in Q3 and instead save some rubber for tomorrow's grand prix.
Toro Rosso's Sebastien Buemi was unfortunate not to make it through to the third qualifying session and ended Q2 just on the wrong side of the cut-off, two tenths slower than Massa. Sauber's Sergio Perez was next up and in front of the other Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari in 13th and his team-mate, Kamui Kobayashi in P14.
Heikki Kovalainen shined for Team Lotus and not only made it through Q1, but also beat both the Force India's to take 15th. Paul di Resta was the quicker of the FIF1 men, four tenths up on his more experienced team-mate, Adrian Sutil.
Rubens Barrichello and Nick Heidfeld were the two big names that failed to make it through the opening session.
Heidfeld was unable to turn a single lap following a fire in practice. The German's mechanics worked tirelessly to try and get him out, but they were unable to repair the damaged R31 in time. The team blamed an exhaust failure for the issue in final practice.
Barrichello also failed to progress due to a mechanical issue - possibly gearbox related. He will line up 19th in his Williams, behind Team Lotus' Jarno Trulli.
Timo Glock trailed Barrichello in 20th in his Virgin, followed by the Hispania's of Vitantonio Liuzzi and Narain Karthikeyan and his team-mate, Jerome d'Ambrosio, who was 0.211 seconds within the 107 percent time.
