Rosberg on pole for German Grand Prix

Nico Rosberg is on pole position for the 2014 German Grand Prix, a weekend where Mercedes and Rosberg are not only celebrating their home Grand Prix, but also their countries World Cup win from the week before.

Nico Rosberg’s lap time of 1:16.540 was quick enough to hold on to pole position, his lap time set early in the third qualifying session. The Williams’ duo of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa line up second and third on the grid after another hugely successful qualifying session for the Williams Martini Racing team who get stronger and stronger each race.

Magnussen out-qualified his teammate Jenson Button once more, starting on P4 and ahead of both Red Bulls of Ricciardo and Vettel, who line up fifth and sixth on the grid. Alonso, Kvyat, Hulkenberg and Perez complete the top ten for tomorrow’s race.

Jules Bianchi got Q1 underway, heading out as soon as the red lights extinguished at the end of the pit lane. The air temperature was logged at 32 degrees to start the session whilst track temperature stood at 55 degrees, making the super soft tyre the quickest option to qualify on this afternoon.

Nico Rosberg, fastest in FP3 this morning, ran wide on his first lap after being told by the team to look after the tyres. His first lap was over six seconds off the pace set initially by Bottas in the Williams, before running a second lap that put him safely within the top ten.

The majority of drivers started Q1 by running on the soft compound, leaving their super-soft’s for later in the afternoon. Lotus, Marussia and Caterham’s Kobayashi started their afternoon straight away on the super-soft compound though, looking to get a banked lap with just run. Caterham’s Marcus Ericsson would not run at all during qualifying after hydraulics issues kept the car in the garage. He will start from last on the grid tomorrow.

A scary incident with Lewis Hamilton brought a red flag to Q1 with just 7:21 left in the session when Hamilton suffered from a brake failure and the car span hard into the barriers. Sounded winded when speaking with the team on the radio, Hamilton eventually got out of the car under his own power leaving the car to be recovered and the Mercedes team with a lot of work to do in order to have the car race-ready for tomorrow. The team later confirmed the cause of the crash was a right front brake disc failure.

The session re-started a few minutes later, with this qualifying session being the first time Lewis Hamilton has failed to reach Q2 or higher since the Malaysian Grand Prix of 2010.

The red flag complicated many teams run plans, but seven cars were quick to get back on track with the green flagged session again, Rosberg leading the pack and quickly putting himself on provisional pole position.

As the chequered flag fell on Q1, Sutil, Bianchi, Maldonado, Kobayashi and Chilton were lost whilst Ericsson will line up at the back after failing to set a time. Adrian Sutil and Pastor Maldonado are now becoming regulars at the back of the pack as both continue to struggle in the new V6 powered era of Formula 1.

Q2 got off to a slow start with most opting not to run immediately, avoiding the on-track heat which had reached 66 degrees. Nico Hulkenberg finally got things started with just over 12 minutes remaining in the session, setting the early pace before being dropped down the time-sheets as the faster cars put their laps in. Again, Rosberg quickly put the Mercedes into provisional pole position, leaving the rest to battle for the remaining nine positions that would see them through to Q3. Once again, most drivers started on the super soft to secure a fast lap as early in the session as possible, whilst Massa and Gutierrez opted to run on a scrubbed set of super-softs trying to keep a fresh set for the final session.

Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen led the surprise dropouts at the end of Q2, qualifying 11th and 12th whilst Toro Rosso’s Jean-Eric Vergne starts in 13th. Esteban Gutierrez, Romain Grosjean and Lewis Hamilton line up 14th through 16th, though Hamilton moves a place forward to P15 after penalties were taken into account and Gutierrez was moved back five places after causing a crash during the British Grand Prix. Hamilton was unable to run after his Q1 crash and did not set a time in Q2.

Sergio Perez, delighted to reach Q3 again for Force India, led the top ten out for Q3 and the shoot-out for pole position. Rosberg was also an early runner, heading straight out to avoid any last minute traffic that may come in the dying minutes of the final qualifying session. The first lap time of Q3 in was from Perez and then followed by the second Force India of Nico Hulkenberg, before one more time, Rosberg moved into pole position.

The Williams’ of Bottas and Felipe Massa, who have looked fast all weekend, put themselves into second and third respectively with just over 4 minutes remaining in Qualifying whilst Sebastian Vettel sat in fourth, over a second off the pole leading pace.

Ultimately, nobody could beat the Mercedes power once again, securing Rosberg yet another pole position to add to his 2014 record. Teammate Lewis Hamilton in contrast starts back in 15th place whilst the top ten provide a nice mix of racers to mix up the start of tomorrows Grand Prix.