Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso after a practice session at the Suzuka circuit on Saturday. The Japanese Grand Prix is on Sunday. (Reuters)

Suzuka: Ralf Schumacher put Toyota on pole position for their home Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday while rain sent championship leaders McLaren to the back of the starting grid.

Formula One’s two Japanese carmakers shared the front row for the first time, with Briton Jenson Button second for Honda-powered BAR.

McLaren, who lead Renault by two points in the constructors’ standings with one race remaining after Japan, will have to fight from the rear after rain played havoc with their qualifying hopes.

Kimi Raikkonen, who has a 10-place penalty for an unscheduled engine change in Friday’s practice, was 17th.

Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya was classified 18th but Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and Jordan’s Tiago Monteiro failed to set a time.

“We’ve never worked so hard to come so low on the grid,” declared team boss Ron Dennis, who said Raikkonen will still start 17th rather than last because “you can only lose 10 places against someone who set a time.”

McLaren’s hopes of clinching the title in Suzuka depend on them finishing first and second with Renault scoring no more than 1 point. Otherwise the battle will be decided in Shanghai next weekend.

Renault’s newly-crowned champion Fernando Alonso qualified 16th but Italian Giancarlo Fisichella raised the French manufacturer’s hopes of clawing back the lead with a second row position.

Button said he expected McLaren, winners of the last five races, to come through regardless.

“We will do everything we possibly can to have the best race we can but we’ve seen before, when Kimi has started at the back or Juan Pablo, that they are very strong ? especially on a circuit like this.”

Ralf recognised that he had been lucky, benefiting from a drier track than the later runners. “Giancarlo would have gone a lot faster anyway, we could see that,” he said.

“It feels great,” said the German. “Being in Japan, on a circuit I like, with Toyota for the first time here, first time on pole, so it’s a great result for the team.”

The pole was the sixth of Ralf’s career but first for Toyota, the team he joined from Williams at the end of last year. It could also be considered Toyota’s first ‘proper’ one.

India’s Narain Karthikeyan claimed a season best 11th place for Team Jordan.

Lady luck continued to smile on the 28-year-old rookie Indian driver who showed remarkable car-control in bringing his Jordan-Toyota EJ15B home ahead of Alonso as well as Michael Schumacher.

“I feel like I have really done my job today under these severe conditions. Driving was tricky, almost like a gamble. It required a real combination of car-control and self-control. But in the end it worked well,” Karthikeyan said.

“I am hoping for a wet race tomorrow to show what we can do with this car,” the Indian added.

Teammate Tiago Monteiro was one of the many to spin and have no time whereas Karthikeyan bettered his practice times by about two seconds to clock 1:48.718 in the extreme wet conditions.

Ferrari’s seven-time champion Michael Schumacher, winner four times in the last five years at Suzuka, starts 14th with Brazilian teammate Rubens Barrichello ninth.

“Basically all I could do was swim for home,” said Schumacher, who crashed in practice. “I think it is fair to claim I was hit with bad luck today.”

The slippery conditions also proved tricky for several early runners, with Trulli and Monteiro both spinning into the gravel at turn nine. Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia spun at the same point but kept his Williams on track and qualified 12th.

Karthikeyan was seventh fastest in rain with a speed of 262.0 km/hr. This speed made him the seventh quickest overall at the legendary and very difficult curb, a corner called the “130 degrees corner”.

“Eleventh on the grid, is my best qualifying result of the season. I was 12th at the first Australian Grand Prix. This showed the trend,” he said after the session.

“I was on the same Bridgestone tyres than Rubens. I am very happy to have scored these speeds and times under these wet conditions.

“It illustrates how our intermediate wet tyres are really working and the team have found a good solution for these wet conditions.”

During his qualifying lap, the Indian driver was 10th fastest overall in his first sector (270.4kmph), 11th fastest in the second sector (297.7kmph) and passed the finish line in 13th position with a speed of 276.0 kilometre.