German Grand Prix 2019 results: Lewis Hamilton takes pole position on nightmare day for Ferrari
Ferrari suffer double-reliability failure as Charles Leclerc starts 10th and Sebastian Vettel in 20th despite setting the pace all weekend
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Your support makes all the difference.Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday’s German Grand Prix on pole position after a nightmare day for Ferrari, with Charles Leclerc unable to run in Q3 and Sebastian Vettel set to start last after an early power unit failure.
Having topped all three practice sessions, hopes were high of a Ferrari pole position in what is Vettel’s home Grand Prix, but in what is the first time that the German has failed to progress from Q1 since Malaysia 2017, the four-time world champion suffered his latest setback in a testing season that saw his qualifying session curtailed within 500 metres.
This time around, Vettel felt the engine issue before he’d reached Turn Two, returning immediately to the Ferrari garage where it soon became apparent that he would not be returning to the track due to an issue with the turbo and head for an early elimination as he climbed out of the cockpit with five minutes remaining in the session.
“I don’t know what happened,” Vettel said immediately afterwards. “Something broke with the turbo and that was as far as it went. The car was great. Hopefully, we have a chance tomorrow.
“I’m looking forward to the race but obviously it would be nicer to start at the very front than the very back, but we will see what happens.”
And if Ferrari were ruing their luck, they were left disconsolate when teammate Leclerc failed to emerge for Q3, instead with the Monegasque climbing out of his car after a reliability failure of his own. "On my side, it was a fuel system problem, so it's a shame but we will be trying to understand what happened in order to not reproduce it,” Leclerc said.
"It's a very difficult day for the team, but I hope it will be a more positive day tomorrow. I felt great in the car, and the car felt great today and all weekend, so it's a shame it ends up last this.
The struggles were not consigned initially consigned to the Ferrari garage alone. Hamilton found himself surprisingly 1.6s off pacesetter Leclerc in Q1 and, astoundingly, found him outside the top 15 that progress to Q2. It meant that he had to run again in order to secure his place in second qualifying, though the improvement was still 0.6s off Leclerc.
The Red Bull of Max Verstappen also had issued as he reported “no power”, not for the first time this weekend, but he was quickly able to return to full speed and make his way through to the final shootout.
And while Ferrari’s latest disappointment was playing out, Hamilton was busy putting his car on pole position, setting an initial lap time of 1:11.767s that proved 0.346s faster than Verstappen, with Valtteri Bottas a further tenth off pole, and none of the top three were able to improve on their second runs to hand Hamilton his 87th pole position of his career.
"I'm not really sure how we did it today, and I'm not really sure what happened to the Ferraris, but it's such an important race for us, our second home Grand Prix, and 125 years of motor racing, so it's incredible to celebrate in this way,” Hamilton said. "We've brought some upgrades this weekend, and the car has felt really good. Ferrari have been really fast this weekend, and I think they've been on a slightly different level.
"I think the times at the end were good enough to be able to compete with Leclerc if he'd done a lap at the end. It would've been close between us."
Behind them, Verstappen’s teammate Pierre Gasly threatened to disrupt the front three, only for his final lap time to be deleted, but he was still able to secure an impressive fourth place after having his Red Bull rebuilt overnight following an off at the final corner in second practice. Kimi Raikkonen claimed fifth in a credible result for Alfa Romeo, ahead of Romain Grosjean in a welcome return to form for the struggling Haas outfit. Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg slotted in ahead of Leclerc, who will still hope to fill 10th position providing nothing major needs changing on his Ferrari.
Joining Vettel in an early elimination was the regular Williams pair of Robert Kubica and George Russell, with the latter securing the bragging rights over his teammate after getting the better of their qualifying head-to-head for the 11th time this season, giving him an unassailable advantage.
They were joined by McLaren’s Lando Norris and Toro Rosso’s Alexander Albon in what proved a difficult session for the 2019 rookies, although their qualifying positions of 16th and 17th respectively could well change after Norris held up Albon on his final flying lap for the best part of half a lap, which will not impress the stewards.
For the first time this season, Lance Stroll managed to haul his Racing Point through to Q2, but that’s as far as the progress went as he qualified in 15th position. The second Toro Rosso of Danil Kvyat was placed just in front of him, with the surprise elimination coming in the form of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo as the Australian could only muster 13th position.
The other two drivers to just miss out on the top-10 shootout were the Alfa Romeo and Haas of Antonio Giovinazzi and Kevin Magnussen respectively, whose disappointment was compounded by the fact their teammates Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean both made it through to Q3 along with Nico Hulkenberg.
Qualifying positions
1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1min 11.767secs
2 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull 1:12.113
3 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Mercedes GP 1:12.129
4 Pierre Gasly (Fra) Red Bull 1:12.180
5 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Alfa Romeo Racing 1:12.538
6 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Haas F1 1:12.851
7 Carlos Sainz (Spa) McLaren 1:12.897
8 Sergio Perez (Mex) Racing Point 1:13.065
9 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Renault 1:13.126
10 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari No Time Set
11 Antonio Giovinazzi (Ita) Alfa Romeo Racing 1:12.786
12 Kevin Magnussen (Den) Haas F1 1:12.789
13 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Renault 1:12.799
14 Daniil Kvyat (Rus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:13.135
15 Lance Stroll (Can) Racing Point 1:13.450
16 Lando Norris (Gbr) McLaren 1:13.333
17 Alexander Albon (Tha) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:13.461
18 George Russell (Gbr) Williams 1:14.721
19 Robert Kubica (Pol) Williams 1:14.839
20 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari No Time Set
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