Lewis Hamilton is confident Mercedes would have been in the fight for pole regardless of Ferrari’s issues in German GP qualifying.
After a poor final practice and Q1, the world champion upped the pace in Q2, setting a low 1m12s on medium tyres to beat Charles Leclerc by a tenth of a second.
That set the scene for a great Q3 duel at Hockenheim which never came as a fuel system issue left the Monegasque sat in the garage after teammate Sebastian Vettel had dropped out in Q1.
“I don’t really know how we did it today. I don’t know what happened to the Ferraris,” Hamilton commented post-qualifying.
“It’s such an important race for us, it’s our second home Grand Prix, Mercedes celebrating 125 years – it’s incredible to celebrate in this way.
“We brought some upgrades this weekend and the car’s been feeling good, but I think the Ferraris were on another level,” he claimed.
“The time at the end was good enough to compete at least, with Leclerc. If he had done a lap at the end it definitely would have been close between us.”
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Though lap times at Hockenheim were slower than 2018, with Hamilton’s pole time half a second down on last year, the Briton was still in awe of the circuit.
“This track is incredible,” he continued. “Every year we come here and the cars get faster. Turn 1 is nearly flat, Turn 12 is nearly flat. It’s a real challenge throughout the lap.”
