German GP: Rosberg on pole, Hamilton on the block. Ferrari back

Nico Rosberg took pole position in qualifying for the Formula 1 German GP. The German from Mercedes beat the Williams of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa. Lewis Hamilton was only 16th after an accident in Q1: the Englishman crashed due to a failure of the right front brake disc, fortunately emerging unscathed. Fourth position on the grid for Kevin Magnussen (McLaren) ahead of the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel. Fernando Alonso with the Ferrari was only seventh, Kimi Raikkonen was out in Q2 with the other Ferrari, only 12th. Kvyat is eighth with Toro Rosso ahead of the Force Indias of Hulkenberg and Perez.

chronicle At the start of Q1 Massa took the lead with 1.18.389 ahead of Hulkenberg, Button, Sutil and Gutierrez. Shortly afterwards Magnussen briefly took the lead before handing it over to Hamilton (1.18.683) while Rosberg was the author of several off-track incidents with braking errors. It was then Bottas' turn, after the first 7 minutes, to take the lead with 1.18.215 but shortly afterwards Hamilton crashed at the entrance to the motodrom due to a brake failure. The Englishman was unharmed and red flag to remove his car. At the restart Rosberg immediately got onto the track with the supersoft tires, lapping in 1.17.631. The others also mounted the option compound and in the end the German finished ahead of the Red Bulls of Ricciardo and Vettel while the two Ferraris sailed in seventh (Alonso) and 11th position (Raikkonen). Sutil 17th, Bianchi, Maldonado, Kobayashi, Chilton, Ericsson eliminated. The latter did not run due to a hydraulic problem suffered in the morning.

In Q2 Massa initially took the lead but Rosberg immediately overtook him with a 1.17.109 while Raikkonen was the author of two less than exciting runs. The Finn will eventually be eliminated, finishing in 12th position. Rosberg, Bottas, Massa, Vettel, Magnussen, Ricciardo, Alonso, Hulkenberg, Kvyat, Perez were therefore left to compete for pole. In addition to Raikkonen, Button, 11th, and Vergne, 13th, were also eliminated. Also out are Gutierrez, Grosjean and obviously Hamilton. The Sauber Mexican will also be penalized three places on the grid for the accident with Maldonado at Silverstone.

In Q3 after the first run Rosberg immediately dictated the pace, lapping in 1.16.540 ahead of the two Williams of Bottas, Massa and then Vettel, Magnussen, Ricciardo, Alonso, Kvyat, Hulkenberg, Perez. Second run and new set of supersoft tyres: Rosberg maintains pole position ahead of the two Williams cars of Bottas and Massa, Magnussen moved up to fourth position ahead of the Red Bulls of Ricciardo and Vettel. Alonso moved up to seventh ahead of Kvyat, Hulkenberg and Perez.

F1 GP Germany 2014 (Hockenheim) – Qualifying results