Vettel takes first pole for Toro Rosso

Germany's Sebastian Vettel seized his and Toro Rosso's first Formula One pole position yesterday in an astonishing Italian Grand Prix qualifying that wrong-footed the title favourites.

With the rain teeming down and visibility limited at the fastest circuit on the calendar, the 21-year-old became the youngest driver to qualify on pole since the championship started in 1950.

Vettel, dubbed 'Baby Schumi' by the German media as their next big hope since the retirement of seven times world champion Michael Schumacher, timed his lap to perfection while Ferrari and McLaren were caught out by the weather and their tyre choices.

McLaren's overall leader Lewis Hamilton was the big casualty of an afternoon that ripped up the form book, the 23-year-old Briton qualifying 15th after gambling on the rain easing off only to find it coming down harder than ever.

Ferrari's world champion Kimi Raikkonen was one place ahead of him.

Ferrari's Brazilian Felipe Massa, just two points behind Hamilton with five races remaining, will start his team's home race today in sixth place.

McLaren's Heikki Kovalainen joined Vettel on the front row with Red Bull's Australian Mark Webber just behind with Toro Rosso's French driver Sebastien Bourdais.

Vettel, whose Ferrari-powered team are only eighth in the championship, was as stunned as anyone by what he had achieved in their home race.

"What can I say? It was my dream one day to drive a Formula One car. My target was to fight for poles and race wins but today I didn't expect it," he said.

"It's a great result for us, a great success," added the driver, who will move to Red Bull's main team at the end of the season to replace the retiring David Coulthard.

Germany's Nico Rosberg qualified fifth for Williams and starts alongside Massa, who has rarely looked convincing in wet conditions but said he was comparatively happy with his position.

"Definitely it's a good opportunity," he said.

"We are not Supermen. It is difficult for everyone. We have done the best we could and we've had a qualifying session which in the end is positive. To be honest it could have been better but it could have been a lot worse."

Hamilton recognised he was "a bit on the back foot" but tried to keep his spirits up.

"I don't feel fantastic, what can you do?," said the Briton, who opted for intermediate tyres rather than extreme wets at the start of the second qualifying session.

"We are bound to make mistakes eventually and it was a mistake from myself and from my engineer."

Toyota's Italian Jarno Trulli secured seventh place on the grid with Renault's double world champion Fernando Alonso, who set the previous record for the youngest pole in Malaysia in 2003, eighth.

Poland's Robert Kubica, third in the championship for BMW-Sauber also came unstuck in the rain and will start 11th.

Ferrari-powered Force India entered new territory with Italian Giancarlo Fisichella taking the team into the second stage of qualifying for the first time.

Fisichella, whose third place with Renault in 2005 makes him still the last Italian driver to stand on the race podium at Monza, lapped quicker than both Hamilton and Raikkonen and will start 12th.