Rosberg takes pole in Hockenheim, despite a problem with the car which prevented him from completing his first lap in Q3. Losing out by just over a tenth, Hamilton made a mistake at turn 6 and locked up. However his lap was enough to take second easily, ahead of the two Red Bulls.
Q1
On soft tyres, Mercedes set the pace in Q1 – an indication that there was more to come from the silver arrows. Palmer had a good session, just making it through to the next part of qualifying. However, his teammate Magnussen failed to make it though, with 17th.
Wehrlein was initially a strong 13th for Manor after the first runs, but improvements from other drivers pushed him down to 18th. Another tough session for Kvyat saw him finish down in 19th, whilst his teammate made it safely through. Haryanto was 20th ahead of both Saubers, who will line up at the back of the grid.
Q2
Making the switch to supersoft tyres for the second part of qualifying, Mercedes once again topped the timesheets. However, Verstappen came within 4 tenths, suggesting Red Bull may have an opportunity to mount a challenge in Q3.
Gutierrez was just knocked out in 11th, scoring his joint best qualifying this season in an impressive drive. His teammate ended up down in 15th, behind Sainz and both McLarens. Palmer failed to improve on 16th position in the Renault.
Q3
Hamilton set the pace initially in Q3 setting a 1:14.486 as Rosberg failed to set a time due to an electrical issue. However, he made it out for his second run, beating Hamilton’s time by 1 tenth of a second. But Hamilton responded, going faster by a second in sector 1. However, a mistake at the hairpin saw him lock up and lose time. In the end, it wasn’t enough to take pole from his teammate, missing out by just over one tenth.
Red Bull again out-qualified Ferrari, with Ricciardo 3rd and Verstappen just behind in 4th. Vettel was disappointed to finish 6th, beaten by Raikkonen who will line up in 5th. Behind, Hulkenberg went a strong 7th, ahead of both Williams. Bottas is 8th, Perez 9th and Massa will start down in 10th position.
The grid
Hulkenberg will receive a one-place grid penalty after his team used a set of tyres which should have ben handed back before the start of the session. This drops him behind Bottas, so he will start 8th.
After impeding Massa during turn 2, Sainz was handed a 3-place penalty and 2 penalty points on his Superlicence. Grosjean also receives a grid drop, of five places, after a spin in FP3 damaged his gearbox. The team had to make a gearbox change, and therefore he was given a 5-place penalty.
With these penalties taken into account, the provisional grid for tomorrow’s race is:
Rosberg, Hamilton; Ricciardo, Verstappen; Raikkonen, Vettel; Bottas, Hulkenberg; Perez, Massa; Gutierrez, Button; Alonso, Palmer; Sainz, Magnussen; Wehrlein, Kvyat; Haryanto, Grosjean; Nasr, Ericsson.