Sebastian Vettel made the most of mechanical problems for championship rival Lewis Hamilton as he claimed pole position for the German Grand Prix on Sunday.
Though the Briton went out at the end of Q1, as a hydraulics failure left him 14th on the grid, the local favourite still faced a stern challenge from the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas in a brilliant Q3 battle at Hockenheim.
First, it was the Ferrari driver who set the benchmark on the first runs before the Finn hit back with his second attempt, Vettel though was not going to be deprived of top spot and set a blistering new lap record of 1m11.212s to hold a two-tenths advantage over the field.
A poor middle sector on his second attempt left Kimi Raikkonen down in third, while Friday pacesetter Max Verstappen had to settle for fourth as once again Red Bull’s engine deficit over a single lap held the Dutchman back.
The main story early on was the demise of Hamilton, however, as the Mercedes driver ground to a halt on the circuit in the final moments of Q1 after already setting a time good enough to make the second part of qualifying.
Initially, some thought a bumpy ride across the exit kerbs and run-off area at Turn 1 had caused the hydraulics problem which left him without drive, but later the team confirmed it was, in fact, the other way around as heavy steering put Lewis wide.
Aware that stopping on track would see him out of the session, the 33-year-old tried to push his car back with the entire Stadium section between him and the pits, soon though marshals caught up Hamilton and pushed his car away leaving him distraught at the side of the track.
Also facing a comeback through the field in the race is Daniel Ricciardo as the Australian was already facing a 20-place grid penalty for new engine components. As a result, he would complete Q1 but would not go out in Q2 and will start from P20.
With two leading drivers out of the equation, that allowed Haas cars to continue as the fourth best team and secure their best ever qualifying as Kevin Magnussen beat teammate Romain Grosjean into fifth with the Frenchman sixth.
The two Renaults closely followed with Nico Hulkenberg in seventh ahead of Carlos Sainz, with the Spaniard having to battle his way through to Q3 after narrowly avoiding early eliminations.
Charles Leclerc made it three top 10’s in four qualifying sessions in P9 for Sauber as Sergio Perez completed the Q3 order in P10 in the Force India.
Q2 was a disrupted session as Marcus Ericsson spun off through Sachskurve and dragged gravel onto the circuit, requiring a red flag to clear it away.
The timing was awful for Verstappen as he was set to improve his lap time on the Soft tyre, trying a different strategy for the race start, but would have to return to the pits.
Ericsson would end up 13th as only three drivers were eliminated in the second stage with Fernando Alonso P11 and Sergey Sirotkin producing a strong performance to put his Williams in 12th.
With Ricciardo’s grid drop, the Q1 order will all move up one place, meaning Esteban Ocon starts 15th after falling at the first hurdle for the first time since Monaco last year.
The two Toro Rosso’s were possibly compromised by Hamilton’s problems but 16th for Pierre Gasly and 17th for Brendon Hartley was still not far off their likely expectations.
Lance Stroll will start 18th as Stoffel Vandoorne’s dreadful weekend continued as he set the slowest time overall and lines up on the back row alongside the Red Bull.
The full results from qualifying can be seen below:
