Lando Norris navigated wet conditions in qualifying to claim pole position at the Las Vegas Grand Prix while title rival and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri will start back in fifth place.
Norris, who leads Piastri by 24 points with three races to go and 83 points to play for, took his third consecutive pole as he closes in on what would be the Englishman's first world title.
He finished 0.323secs ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen with the reigning champion describing conditions at the street circuit in Nevada as "like driving on ice".
Williams driver Carlos Sainz and Mercedes' George Russell will make up the second row ahead of Piastri and RB's Liam Lawson who starts sixth.
"I had a nap before qualifying, and I was expecting it to be dry and I woke up and saw it was wet," said Norris, who is looking for his third win on the spin following victories in Mexico and then Brazil last time out.
"I thought: 'Oh no, this is not going to well'. It is so easy to crash when it is like this so it is rewarding to be on pole.
"It was stressful as hell. It is so slippery out there that as soon as you hit the kerb you snap the car but it was good enough for P1.
"The pace has been good all weekend. I didn't expect to be as quick as I was in the wet. It is going to be an interesting race with Max up there. Hopefully we can have a good race."
Piastri, whose title hopes appear to be fading rapidly, told Sky Sports: "There was more out there that we didn't get to use. We've got a good car underneath us that seems to be working well in all conditions so we can have a strong race tomorrow and hopefully make up some spots."
Four-time champion Verstappen - who is third in the drivers' standings 49 points shy of Norris - is "excited" for Sunday's race despite the testing conditions in qualifying.
"It's already slippery in the dry, but in the wet it's not fun. It felt more like driving on ice," said the Belgian.
"I did feel we were a little more competitive on the extreme tyre. We were not quite competitive enough to fight for pole but second is still good.
"Excited for tomorrow, I hope the inside [of the grid] is OK in terms of grip but we will see."
For seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, his first season at Ferrari continues to go from bad to worse after he finished as the slowest of all 20 drivers.
Hamilton lapped 3.97 seconds slower than George Russell's pace-setting Mercedes in Q1, and 2.3 seconds adrift of Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc. It marked one of the worst qualifying performance of Hamilton's 19-season career.
"I don't really have words for it," said Hamilton, who has yet to stand on the podium for his new team, although he did win the sprint race in China in March.
"It's obviously not good enough. I just couldn't get temperature into the tyres, had a lot of understeer and I think one of my front brakes was glazed so I was really struggling to stop it in the corners.
"It's very annoying, of course, because in P3 the car was feeling awesome and I thought it was going to be a great day and it turned out to be the worst. It can't get much worse than that."
The latest chapter in Hamilton's year to forget arrived 11 days after he was told by Ferrari chairman John Elkann to "talk less and focus more on his driving".
Hamilton is 66 points behind Leclerc in the standings, and his confidence here - in conditions he so often mastered - appeared shot as he failed to register a lap of any significance.
He has now been out-qualified by Leclerc 17 times this year. The Monegasque will start Saturday's race from ninth on another poor day for Ferrari.
"It obviously feels horrible; it doesn't feel good," added Hamilton. "I just have to let it go and try and come back tomorrow.
"I have done everything I could possibly do in terms of preparation. I felt like we were quickest after practice, and then you come out in qualifying 20th, and this year is definitely the hardest year.
"We have a quick car. But it will be really hard to come back from last."
