Sebastian Vettel landed pole position in a dripping wet, delayed Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying session, ahead of Nico Rosberg and Fernando Alonso, for his ninth pole start of the season.
It was a wet qualifying session in Brazil, accompanied by incongruously upbeat samba drums, with skids and delays a-plenty.
Many of the younger team drivers opted to go early out onto track in Q1 on intermediate tyres due to the worsening weather conditions, with the Caterhams of Charles Pic and Giedo van der Garde particularly impressing.
Lewis Hamilton - following Friday's practice sessions - claimed he wouldn't have a chance in the GP if the rain were to stay, despite Mercedes team-mate Rosberg topping the field on Friday.
The British driver, however, may have been unnecessarily pessimistic about his chances, as he benefitted from the deteriorating track pace by registering an early fastest lap.
And it would prove to be the quickest of Q1, with Germans Vettel and Rosberg also setting a quick pace.
It appeared Mercedes would be tought to beat and, in Q2, their good form continued, as they cruised into the top ten.
Adrian Sutil and Paul Di Resta both toiled in the Force Indias, as a scramble to avoid the drop zone ensued in the last five minutes, as teams strived to batter some pace out of the slow track.
Sergio Perez hit the wall on his last lap of Q2, on turn five, which compounded his misery heading out of contention for a top ten place.
And his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button didn't fair much better, crashing out 15th.
The third qualifying session was delayed for over thirty minutes owing to the adverse weather conditions, with full wet tyres equipped on every car going out for Q3.
Vettel's wet weather pace was strong enough to go top of the field after everyone had registered a lap, with Grosjean first to take the intermediate tyres on a run and going over a second qucker.
But the German hit back on a set of intermediates himself, with Webber also moving ahead of the French Lotus driver, who eventually slipped to sixth.
Toro Rosso were unsung heroes of the session, with both Daniel Ricciardo (8th) and Jean-Eric Vergne (9th) sealing top ten starts.
Q1: 17th: P. Maldonado 18th: E. Gutierrez 19th: C. Pic 20th: G. van der Garde 21st: J. Bianchi 22nd: M. Chilton
Q2: 16th: A. Sutil 15th: J. Button 14th: S. Perez 13th: V. Bottas 12th: P. Di Resta 11th: H. Kovalainen
Q3: 1st: S. Vettel 2nd: N. Rosberg 3rd: F. Alonso 4th: M. Webber 5th: L. Hamilton 6th: R. Grosjean 7th: D. Ricciardo 8th: J-E. Vergne 9th: F. Massa 10th: N. Hulkenburg