Jenson Button will start from eighth on the grid after both McLaren's qualified inside the top ten for the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday.
Frome Flyer Button clocked 1min 34.317secs in the final part of qualifying at Suzuka on Saturday to finish one place behind team-mate Kevin Magnussen.
Nico Rosberg took pole position in all Mercedes front-row ahead of team-mate and world championship leader Lewis Hamilton.
Button said: "My final lap in Q3 was the best lap I'd done all day. We didn't get the timing of the previous runs right during Q1 and Q2, but the traffic was pretty much perfect for my final run.
"It was a good effort, but I still locked up going into the last chicane, which frustratingly gave me a small flat-spot. Still, we won't use those tyres in the race, so it's not too much of a problem. I'm not even sure if I lost any time, but it was a bit messy.
"Everyone thinks it's going to be massively wet tomorrow. We don't have too much of a different set-up between wet and dry, so it's better to do well in qualifying. I'll just take whatever the weather brings tomorrow."
