Nico Rosberg claimed his fifth pole position of the year at home for Mercedes in Hockenheim.
But it didn’t all go according to plan for the championship leaders. Lewis Hamilton crashed out after a brake failure during Q1 and will provisionally line up 15th on the grid.That left the Williams pair to take the fight to Mercedes, and Valtteri Bottas put his car on the front row alongside Rosberg.
Q1
Qualifying has been a weakness for Hamilton in recent races but as Q1 began it seemed things were going his way. Running on the harder of the two tyre compounds he set the quickest time initially, while Rosberg aborted two runs and languished at the foot of the times.
Bottas then beat Hamilton’s time by four-tenths of a second, so the Mercedes driver pressed on in search of further improvements. But it all went wrong as he sped into the Motodrom section – his right-front brake disc failed, and the W05 pirouetted across the short run-off area before making heavy contact with the barrier.
Hamilton, bruised but unhurt, clambered out of his car while the session was red-flagged. He’d already set a quick enough time to secure a place in Q2, but as he would take no further part in the session he was condemned to start near the back of the field.
When the session resumed with seven minutes to go Rosberg wasted no time in making sure he didn’t suffer the same fate as his team mate. He used a set of the quicker super-soft tyres to ensure he continued into Q2.
With Marcus Ericsson failing to leave the pits due to a hydraulic leak from his Caterham’s throttle, Max Chilton was the slowest of the drivers to set a time and will line up on the back row of the grid.
His team mate Jules Bianchi put his car ahead of Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus as well as the other Caterham of Kamui Kobayashi. Adrian Sutil also failed to progress to the second part of qualifying.
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Drivers eliminated in Q1
17 | Adrian Sutil | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’19.142 |
18 | Jules Bianchi | Marussia-Ferrari | 1’19.676 |
19 | Pastor Maldonado | Lotus-Renault | 1’20.195 |
20 | Kamui Kobayashi | Caterham-Renault | 1’20.408 |
21 | Max Chilton | Marussia-Ferrari | 1’20.489 |
22 | Marcus Ericsson | Caterham-Renault |
Q2
Normal service was resumed as far as Mercedes were concerned in Q2 – Rosberg was quickest, but the Williams lurked close behind, just two-tenths of a second slower.
With Hamilton unable to take part only five further drivers would be eliminated. Romain Grosjean was the slowest of the runners in the ill-handling Lotus, with Esteban Gutierrez ahead of him. However Gutierrez’s penalty from the previous race will promote Grosjean and Hamilton, as well as Sutil.
Jenson Button ended final practice very unhappy with the handling of his McLaren, but reported the braking had improved when the qualifying session began.
Nonetheless he was unable to claim a place in the final ten. Former team mate Sergio Perez squeezed him out by three-hundredths of a second. But of more concern will be the four-tenths of a second gap to his current team mate.
Kimi Raikkonen also failed to reach the final ten after his fuel pressure problems during final practice.
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Drivers eliminated in Q2
11 | Jenson Button | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’18.193 |
12 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1’18.273 |
13 | Jean-Eric Vergne | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’18.285 |
14 | Esteban Gutierrez | Sauber-Ferrari | 1’18.787 |
15 | Romain Grosjean | Lotus-Renault | 1’18.983 |
16 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes |
Q3
The loss of Hamilton meant the spice was taken out of the pole position shoot-out. The Williams drivers’ hopes of beating Rosberg on pure pace always seemed remote, though Bottas gave it a good go.
Rosberg’s first run eventually proved to be his best – initially he was over half a second faster than Bottas. The Williams driver produced the fastest middle sector on his final run, but fell short of Rosberg by two-tenths of a second.
That confirmed Rosberg’s fifth pole position of the season – a coup for the driver who re-signed for Mercedes earlier this week.
Massa took third and will share the second row of the grid with Kevin Magnussen, who starts seven places ahead of the other McLaren.
The Red Bull pair claimed the third row of the grid, Daniel Ricciardo out-qualifying Vettel again, followed by Fernando Alonso and Daniil Kvyat, then the two Force Indias.
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Top ten in Q3
1 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1’16.540 |
2 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams-Mercedes | 1’16.759 |
3 | Felipe Massa | Williams-Mercedes | 1’17.078 |
4 | Kevin Magnussen | McLaren-Mercedes | 1’17.214 |
5 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull-Renault | 1’17.273 |
6 | Sebastian Vettel | Red Bull-Renault | 1’17.577 |
7 | Fernando Alonso | Ferrari | 1’17.649 |
8 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso-Renault | 1’17.965 |
9 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India-Mercedes | 1’18.014 |
10 | Sergio Perez | Force India-Mercedes | 1’18.035 |
2014 German Grand Prix
- Mercedes explain cause of Hamilton’s brake failure
- Three-in-a-row for Bottas in Driver of the Weekend
- Hockenheim continues 2014’s run of top races
- 2014 German GP Predictions Championship results
- 2014 German Grand Prix team radio transcript
Osvaldas31 (@osvaldas31)
19th July 2014, 14:43
So the biggest gainers from FRIC ban are Williams and Mclaren. Red Bull seems to suffer as much as Mercedes. Ferrari are in their usual positions.
Atticus (@atticus-2)
19th July 2014, 16:00
I’d wait for at least two race weekends before I jump to conclusions, but my initial impressions are different anyways.
I don’t see a particular improvement in the performance of either Williams or McLaren (the former was strong in the dry in Austria as well, indicating a well-working upgrade package, while the latter is stronger in quali – and weaker in race trim – since about Barcelona).
I think Lotus may have suffered the most with the loss of FRIC and I see no particularly big gainers up to now.
@HoHum (@hohum)
19th July 2014, 14:45
Well at least Hamilton is going to have plenty of tyres, and he’s going to need them if the weather stays hot, any bets on how many times he will have to pass Hulkenberg?
lluismf
19th July 2014, 14:50
Forecast for tomorrow is rain. The only possibility for HAM to make podium.
Uzair Syed (@ultimateuzair)
19th July 2014, 15:07
But Hamilton has been better than Rosberg so far this season in the rain.
Dan
19th July 2014, 15:32
You gotta be kidding if Ham has a reliable car and is not caught in a first lap incident. He will finsih 2nd
Oli (@dh1996)
19th July 2014, 16:08
Hm … I believe Hamilton will be in P8-10 after the first lap and quickly work his way up into the top 4. Even if the Williams are superquick tomorrow – Massa will drop the ball or they screw up at least one drivers’ strategy.
Stuart Brookes (@ztubert)
19th July 2014, 19:41
Unfortunately for HAM, it now looks like the rain will come too late for the race.
BasCB (@bascb)
19th July 2014, 19:23
Who knows, he might have a start much like last race and end up in the top 3 by the 5th lap!
Funkyf1 (@funkyf1)
19th July 2014, 14:47
Kamui beat Max! There is hope for Caterham yet
Shomir Das
19th July 2014, 15:00
To be fair that is more of Kamui being a better driver compared to Chilton
David Smo
19th July 2014, 18:01
Roseberg should have been out in q1 as he put four wheels off the track in the last corner. Where is the consistancy!!!!!
Jere (@jerejj)
19th July 2019, 13:32
@David Smo But didn’t gain a lasting advantage from it.