Webber's Red Bull team-mate - who trails Barrichello by just two points and Jenson Button by 16 in the drivers' standings heading into the penultimate round in Brazil - looked in good form after back-to-back recent victories.
Heikki Kovalainen was the fastest of the McLarens at the end of the 90-minute session, just ahead of his team-mate Lewis Hamilton, while championship leader Button struggled with understeer towards the end and could only manage the seventh quickest time.
Button began what could be his world championship-winning weekend by venturing out on track early to get some running under his belt before the pre-empted rain showers, although he wasn’t able to set a fully representative time on his first runs.
Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen were the first to set fast laps in the 1m 13s, with their KERS system giving the British marque a significant advantage at Interlagos.
Webber was also quick early on and he swapped the top spot with Hamilton on a number of occasions until about half an hour into the session when Vettel became the first to enter the 1m 12s, just as a rain shower interrupted the session.
Renault has opted not to run KERS in South America, despite the obvious advantages, and neither Fernando Alonso nor Romain Grosjean were on the pace of the front-runners in P1.
With half an hour left in the session, just as the second rain storm moved across the circuit, Grosjean brought out the red flags when he ran wide at turn 12 and took out the 100 metre marker boards, spreading polystyrene across the track.
The pit-lane reopened with around 20 minutes to go and teams released their cars on the medium-compound tyre before completing a run on the softer option rubber before the predicted rain shower came in the dying minutes of the session.
Webber was the first to improve, setting a 1m 12.805s on his first timed run to go quickest overall ahead of his team-mate Vettel and Hamilton in the first of the McLarens.
All the runners suffered with tyre wear on the medium compound tyres at the left-rear, indicating that the teams would struggle with the less durable super-softs.
However, Webber went on to improve by three tenths of a second with a 1m 12.4 and he was followed across the line by Barrichello, who set the second fastest time overall with four minutes to go, but the Brazilian was over four tenths off the pace.
Championship leader Button, on the other hand, locked up at the Senna Esses and his lap was destroyed by a bout of understeer later in the lap and he was only able to improve to seventh on his final run, splitting the Williams pair of Kazuki Nakajima and Rosberg.
Kovalainen was the quickest of the McLarens in fourth at the end of the session, although Hamilton was directly behind him on the timesheets.
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