The 2009 champion’s curious record of always being outqualified by his teammate in Korea continued.

“We got screwed a little by the Lotus, I don’t know which one, at the end of the lap,” said Button.

“It’s been tricky on the track all day. It’s s shame we lost a tenth and half which would have put us through.”

It turned out to be Raikkonen.

But he wasn’t the only one to complain about the traffic. Paul di Resta and Max Chilton suffered similar problems.

Di Resta’s disappointing run continued as he qualified two-tenths behind teammate Adrian Sutil as the two Force India cars start 14th and 15th.

While Chilton starts 22nd: “I had some traffic coming out of the pits and then couldn’t get the temperature in the tyres,” said the Marussia man.

With the smallest crowd of the year expected on Sunday and 100,000 seats likely to be unfilled and Vettel poised to walk away with yet another win the only hope of a reprieve came from reports that Typhoon Fitow could blow into town in the early hours of the morning.

But even Mother Nature appears to have turned her back on F1 with some forecasters claiming it has veered off towards Japan.