Nico Rosberg strikes back on his Mercedes team-mate and title challenger Lewis Hamilton to take pole position at Hockenheim.
This P1 is significant in terms of the championship. Just six points the difference following Hamilton’s victory in Hungary last weekend. Rosberg was under pressure in Q3 following an electronic issue that forced him to abort his first flying lap.
It seemed Lewis Hamilton had the edge after setting the quickest time in Q1 and Q2. The championship leader was on provisional pole in Q3 with a margin of six tenths of a second over the others.
Rosberg took to the track on super-softs after the electronic issue was resolved and grabbed his fifth pole position of the season by just over a tenth of a second.
Hamilton responding to his team-mate’s lap time. He was tenth of a second quicker in the first sector but locked up at the Turn 6 hairpin and fell up short. Still lines up second on the grid.
Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo relegated team-mate Max Verstappen to fourth on his final run, having been behind on first-run times.
Ferrari locked out the third row, with Kimi Raikkonen outpacing Sebastian Vettel by almost two tenths to win the intra-team battle.
Force India and Williams had a very close battle for the final four places in the top ten, with the four cars covered by just 0.105 seconds.
Nico Hulkenberg won the battle ahead of Valtteri Bottas, with Sergio Perez ninth ahead of Felipe Massa.
Esteban Gutierrez was the fastest driver in Q2 to be eliminated, ending up P11, after briefly breaking into the top ten with his final run before being eliminated by Massa’s late improvement.
McLaren driver Jenson Button was P12 ahead of Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz, who is under investigation for impeding Massa at Turn 2.
Fernando Alonso was P14 after running wide over a kerb and shedding some small parts of his front wing in the stadium section – although he also complained about being held up by Vettel’s slow Ferrari.
Romain Grosjean, who lost most of final practice to a gearbox problem that will lead to a five-place penalty, was P15 ahead of Jolyon Palmer, the Renault driver making his first Q2 appearance since the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat was the surprise driver to be eliminated in Q1 thanks to late improvements from the Renaults and Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein.
Palmer’s final lap put him into Q2, with Kevin Magnussen taking P17 with a lap less than a tenth slower than his team-mate.
Despite not believing he could have gone any quicker after his second run, Wehrlein used a third set of super-softs to take P18 with what he described as a “great” lap ahead of the baffled Kvyat.
The Sauber pairing of Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson complete the final row, with the former just over a tenth faster than his team-mate.
So a top result for Nico Rosberg in front of his home fans. This result marks 30 years since his father Keke recorded his last pole position. At exactly the same circuit too.
Qualifying standings, German Grand Prix:
1 Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m14.363s
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m14.470s
3 Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull-Renault 1m14.726s
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Renault 1m14.834s
5 Kimi Raikkonen Ferrari 1m15.142s
6 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1m15.315s
7 Nico Hulkenberg Force India-Mercedes 1m15.510s
8 Valtteri Bottas Williams-Mercedes 1m15.530s
9 Sergio Perez Force India-Mercedes 1m15.537s
10 Felipe Massa Williams-Mercedes 1m15.615s
11 Esteban Gutierrez Haas-Ferrari 1m15.883s
12 Jenson Button McLaren-Honda 1m15.909s
13 Carlos Sainz Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m15.989s
14 Fernando Alonso McLaren-Honda 1m16.041s
15 Jolyon Palmer Renault 1m16.665s
16 Kevin Magnussen Renault 1m16.716s
17 Pascal Wehrlein Manor-Mercedes 1m16.717s
18 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m16.876s
19 Rio Haryanto Manor-Mercedes 1m16.977s
20 Romain Grosjean Haas-Ferrari 1m16.086s
21 Felipe Nasr Sauber-Ferrari 1m17.123s
22 Marcus Ericsson Sauber-Ferrari 1m17.238s
German Grand Prix qualifying review as reported by Formula1.com:
Nico Rosberg snatched a dramatic home pole at Hockenheim on Saturday, beating Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.1s despite being restricted to a single run in the final Q3 shootout.
An electrical issue meant Rosberg had to abandon his first run, and therefore headed out for one single three-lap stint three minutes from the finish. At that point Hamilton was provisionally fastest, but with the pressure on Rosberg vaulted his team mate to claim top spot.
Hamilton had time to respond, and was even up in the first sector – but he couldn’t quite deny Rosberg a second straight pole one home turf.
Red Bull proved Mercedes’ closest challengers, edging Ferrari to lock out the second row of the grid. Daniel Ricciardo labelled the lap that earned him third – just one tenth ahead of Max Verstappen – as a ‘beauty’.
Ferrari were therefore constrained to the third row, Kimi Raikkonen this time getting the better of home favourite Sebastian Vettel, while Force India and Williams rounded out the top ten through Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez and Felipe Massa respectively.
Esteban Gutierrez was unlucky to miss out on a Q3 berth, the Haas man winding up 11th ahead of McLaren’s Jenson Button. The Briton’s team mate Fernando Alonso was 14th, giving him a share of row seven with compatriot and Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz.
The latter’s team mate Daniil Kvyat was the biggest surprise casualty in Q1, exiting alongside both Saubers, both Manors, and the Renault of Kevin Magnussen.
Mercedes fired an ominous warning to the rest of the field in that session, as they opted to run on the soft tyre – the rest of the field were on supersofts – and still wound up fastest, with Hamilton marginally ahead of Rosberg, Ricciardo and Raikkonen.
It looked as if Manor had got through to Q2 right up until the dying moments, but good laps for Button, Sainz and Renault’s Jolyon Palmer left Pascal Wehrlein – who had been 13th fastest after the opening runs – eliminated in 18th. Kevin Magnussen in the second Renault was just 0.001s ahead in 17th, but was also eliminated, with team mate Palmer scraping into Q2 by just 0.080s.
Kvyat, Rio Haryanto in the second Manor, and the Saubers of Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson, completed the bottom six in Q1.
Both Mercedes switched to supersofts for Q2, and Hamilton again headed Rosberg, 1m 14.748s to 1m 14.839s. This time Verstappen got closest, on the same rubber, with 1m 15.124s, followed by Raikkonen, Bottas, Perez and Ricciardo.
Further down, Vettel and Massa just made it through to Q3, leaving an impressive Gutierrez a disappointed 11th on 1m 15.883s for Haas ahead of Button, Sainz and Alonso. Romain Grosjean – whose gearbox was changed ahead of qualifying – was 15th for Haas on 1m 16.086s, with Palmer 16th on 1m 16.665s.
Sainz is under investigation for potentially impeding Massa unfairly during Q2.
Q3 then opened with the electrical worry for Rosberg, and there was further concern for Mercedes as a fabulous run by Ricciardo saw him book a provisional front row slot alongside Hamilton.
On his first pukka run Rosberg got the job done beautifully, however. Smooth and fast and at his very best, the German stopped the clocks in 1m 14.363s. Hamilton’s reply was a little untidy, and though he improved slightly to 1m 14.470s it wasn’t enough.
Ricciardo also failed to improve but stayed third as Verstappen improved to 1m 14.834s, leaving the Ferraris breathless. Raikkonen stayed ahead of the troubled Vettel, with 1m 15.142s to 1m 15.315s.
With Grosjean’s looming five-place penalty factored in, the grid is set to line up thus: Rosberg, Hamilton; Ricciardo, Verstappen; Raikkonen, Vettel; Hulkenberg, Bottas; Perez, Massa; Gutierrez, Button; Sainz, Alonso; Palmer, Magnussen; Wehrlein, Kvyat; Haryanto, Grosjean; Nasr, Ericsson.
Toro Rosso driver Daniil Kvyat admits his future in Formula 1 might not be “bright” if he cannot reverse his current form slump.
The Russian finished on the podium in China in the third grand prix of the season, but lost his Red Bull drive to Max Verstappen after the next race.
Since joining Toro Rosso, Kvyat has scored just two points, with new team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr scoring 26 in the same period.
After qualifying 19th for the German Grand Prix, which will become 18th after Romain Grosjean’s grid penalty, in a “shit session” Kvyat conceded he had to reverse the slump to remain in F1, especially given Red Bull’s ruthless attitude.
“It’s looking very bad now, and if it continues like this then I don’t think anything bright is ahead,” he said.
“I just need to get things going, and once I do that, then it will be fine.
“It’s not like I’m having the most pleasant time in the world, it’s not easy, but it’s not an excuse.
“Everyone has hard times. If you’re good, you come out of it, if you’re not good enough, you just die.”
Kvyat said even F1’s summer break, and the scope to get away and understand the situation, might not be enough.
“I don’t know what I need,” he said.
“I just need a feeling with the car. I don’t have it at the moment.
“When it comes back it should be much better. I can’t remember the last time I had a good feeling with any car, so I don’t know what’s going on.
“It seems like my window of working is very narrow. I need to work on expanding on it, but it’s not easy.”
Kvyat was ninth and 12th in the opening two practice sessions, in what he described “a good Friday for the first time in a while”.
But on Saturday afternoon he was six tenths and seven places behind Sainz in Q1, qualifying between the Manors.
“I can’t say it’s just oversteer or understeer, it’s a combination of things,” he said.
“It’s different balance issues in a different part of the corner that makes me lose confidence, and I just need to understand where to put it, to shuffle it around, and the right moments will come.
“I’ve nearly always found solutions, and that’s what I will work on. I feel like a solution is not far away, even if it looks really bad on paper.
“The pace was better on the Friday on long runs, I’ve not much to lose anyway, so I will try to go for it tomorrow.
“I just don’t have any feeling in the car at the moment, and I know when I have a feeling with the car there are not many drivers who can beat me.
“But I don’t have the feeling so I am very easy to beat at the moment. This is how it is.”
Source: Autosport.com
A change to the German Grand Prix grid due to penalties for Toro Rosso and Haas. In particular Carlos Sainz and Romain Grosjean. Formula1.com has the news story.
Carlos Sainz and Romain Grosjean will both take grid drops for Sunday’s Formula 1 Grosser Preis von Deutschland at Hockenheim.
Sainz has been issued a three-place penalty after being deemed to have unfairly impeded Williams’ Felipe Massa in Turn 2 during the second phase of qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
The Spaniard, who had qualified 13th for Toro Rosso, was also handed two penalty points on his Superlicence – taking him to four points in total, of the permitted 12 within a calendar year.
Grosjean’s penalty meanwhile relates to a gearbox change that Haas were forced to make between FP3 and the start of qualifying.
The Frenchman, who had booked 15th, will drop five places.
There could yet be further changes, as stewards are currently investigating Nico Hulkenberg and Force India for an alleged technical breach. The team were referred to the stewards after Hulkenberg apparently used a set of supersofts in Q1 that had been electronically returned after FP3. Current regulations state that teams must hand back two sets of tyres, which cannot be used again, before qualifying begins.
Championship leader Lewis Hamilton is ready to “race it out” with Nico Rosberg, who will start on pole in his home grand prix.
Lewis Hamilton refused to blame a final-lap error after he missed out on pole to Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg at the German Grand Prix on Saturday.
Rosberg pipped championship leader Hamilton by 0.107 seconds in a dramatic qualifying segment at Hockenheim to ensure he will start out in front in his home grand prix on Sunday.
An electrical issue restricted Rosberg to just one flying lap late in Q3, but the German was able to go top of the timesheets ahead of Hamilton.
World champion Hamilton, fastest in Q1 and Q2, had time for one final attempt, but had to settle for second on the grid after locking up heading into a hairpin.
The Brit, who leads Rosberg by six points in the championship, said: “It’s been a good weekend, I had no problems. I had the pace today I just didn’t finish it off in the last lap.
“I didn’t really have much of a lock-up. It was subtle; I didn’t lose any time.”
He added: “I’d been first in every qualifying session so yeah, it [pole] was definitely on. I was two tenths up on the lap and I just didn’t finish it. That’s it.”
Hamilton won in Hungary last weekend after starting behind Rosberg and is looking forward to doing battle with his title rival again in the final race before a four-week break.
“It should be a good day for Mercedes. That’s the goal and yeah, we’ll race it out.”
Hamilton was not penalised following an unsafe release into the pit lane during Saturday’s practice session, but Mercedes were fined €10,000.
Hamilton joined the pit lane close to Haas driver Romain Grosjean, who was forced to stop in his tracks as the defending champion made his exit.
Grosjean was punished, though, after a gearbox change Haas were forced to make between FP3 and the start of qualifying, the Frenchman handed a five-place penalty to see him start 20th.
Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz will also incur a grid drop after impeding Felipe Massa in turn two, while Niko Hulkenberg could be in trouble for using an invalid set of tyres.
Source: Eurosport