Rivals hit with grid penalties

Jenson Button's hopes of wrapping up the Formula One title today receded after race stewards slapped a five-place penalty on the championship leader.

The Briton was one of five drivers, including Brawn team-mate and closest title rival Rubens Barrichello, to be punished for speeding in yesterday's crash-strewn qualifying session while yellow warning flags were being waved.

Button can only win the championship today, with two races to spare, if he scores five points more than Brazilian Barrichello. That looked unlikely as night fell at Suzuka, with the stewards reaching their decision after deliberating for more than three hours.

Button, who needs to finish at least fourth if the title race is not to go on to Brazil in two weeks' time, will now start 11th on the provisional grid with Barrichello ninth.

Red Bull's Sebastien Vettel, the only other contender for the title, will be on pole position alongside Toyota's Jarno Trulli after a chaotic session that had to be stopped three times due to crashes.

Britain's outgoing world champion Lewis Hamilton will line up third with BMW-Sauber's Nick Heidfeld alongside after Force India's Adrian Sutil was dropped from fourth.

Renault's double world champion Fernando Alonso, who qualified 12th, and Toro Rosso's Swiss rookie Sebastien Buemi were also handed five-place penalties.

Buemi, who scattered debris across the track and brought out the warning flags when he skidded along the barriers in the second part of qualifying, was also reprimanded for impeding others and posing a potential hazard by staying on the track.

"It was a tough session. No one got any practice on Friday, very little this morning," Button, who is 25 points clear of Vettel with three races remaining, told the BBC.

All of the top three drivers had team-mates who crashed.

Glock's accident was the most serious, with the German plunging into the barriers at the final corner only hours after he had been passed fit to race.

Vettel's Australian team-mate Mark Webber did not take part in qualifying and will start from the pit lane in last place after damaging his car in a crash in the morning's final practice.

Heikki Kovalainen, one of several drivers without previous experience of a challenging circuit making its return to the calendar for the first time since 2006, went into the tyre wall at the Degner curve in the final phase of qualifying.

Toro Rosso's Spanish rookie Jaime Alguersuari brought out the first of two red flags in the space of 11 minutes when he ploughed into the tyre wall in the second phase. He was unhurt.