Nico Rosberg banked a straight-forward and unopposed pole position on both his and Mercedes’ home ground at Hockenheim, but the fairy tale was somewhat diminished for the Brackley outfit after Lewis Hamilton crashed out of Q1 with brake failure.
Rosberg nailed a lap of 1:16.540 to pip the superb Valterri Bottas by two tenths of a second. Williams took full advantage of the missing Mercedes, with Bottas followed by team-mate Felipe Massa in third.
Also impressing were Kevin Magnussen in fourth and Daniel Ricciardo in fifth, three tenths up on four time world champion team mate Sebastian Vettel, whose lap was still good enough for sixth.
Fernando Alonso could only manage seventh in the recalcitrant Ferrari, ahead of the spectacularly sideways Daniil Kvyat in eighth and the two Force Indias on row five. Nico Hulkenberg just edged Sergio Perez in a great result for the team, considering both cars were almost eliminated in Q1.
Rosberg topped Q2 with a lap of 1:17.109, a couple of tenths clear of the two Williams’. The big names to fall in the second session were Jenson Button’s McLaren and the continuously disappointing Kimi Raikkonen in 11th and 12th. Button was baulked on one lap by Romain Grosjean’s Lotus, while Raikkonen locked up at the hairpin on his last lap. Jean-Eric Vergne, Esteban Gutierrez and Grosjean qualified 13th to 15th, although Gutierrez will lose 3 places due to the penalty he incurred after the British Grand Prix for his ambitious move on Pastor Maldonado.
Rosberg also topped Q1 with a lap of 1:17.631, but the big news was team-mate Lewis Hamilton crashing out with seven minutes of the session remaining. Entering the banked stadium section, Hamilton suffered a right front brake disc failure, his car pitched backwards into the tyre barriers causing a nine minute red flag. Hamilton appeared to be winded by the impact and was taken away in the medical car. His best lap though, was good enough to get through to Q2 and he’ll start 15th, gaining a position thanks to Gutierrez’s penalty.
Eliminated in Q1 were Adrian Sutil, the always excellent Jules Bianchi and Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus, occupying positions 17 through to 19. Kamui Kobayashi will line up 20th, ahead of Max Chilton, while Marcus Ericsson will start last after his Caterham team couldn’t even get the Swede out for a single lap.
