Rosberg takes pole, Hamilton hits brake failure

F1 Grand Prix, GP Germany, Hockenheimring

Nico Rosberg took pole position at Hockenheim for the German Grand Prix, a fairly straightforward feat for the German after Lewis Hamilton dropped out early with a front right brake failure. Williams' Valtteri Bottas will start from second place, ahead of team mate Felipe Massa.

With a track temperature around 50°C, qualifying got underway in Germany with Jenson Button setting the first timed lap of the session, soon bettered by Felipe Massa.

Only 7 minutes after the beginning of the session, track action came up to speed. Two minutes later literally everyone is out on track, apart from Marcus Ericsson who is still waiting for his mechanics to fix a hydraulic issue with the throttle encountered during FP3 earlier today.

In this early stage most are out on the soft tyres and doing multiple laps on a single set to get them in optimum working range. The super soft tyres on the other hand proved quite a bit faster but may by good only for a single flying lap and perhaps just a stint of less than 10 laps during the race, due to the burning German sun.

12 minutes into the session it's Bottas who is in charge, ahead of Hamilton, Massa and Alonso. Rosberg meanwhile completed 5 laps, all of which out of the 107% range behind the fastest man due to various errors during all of his attempts.

Things are even worse for Hamilton as he spins off the track in turn 13, seemingly having his brakes lock up unexpectedly. With the tyre barriers not far away in this area, Hamilton came to a stop against them, definitely ending qualifying for him. The event also caused a red flag with 7:29 left on the clock.

After returning the car to the pitlane, the session gets underway again with Nico Rosberg immediately out on options. The super softs are enough for the fastest time so far, more than half a second quicker than Bottas.

Rosberg's move seemingly triggered all other drivers to go out on the options as well. Among them, Ricciardo proved fastest, 4 tenths behind Rosberg. Vettel slotted into third, ahead of Bottas, Magnussen, Massa, Alonso, Button, Vergne and Kvyat. Eliminated are Sutil, Bianchi, Maldonado, Kobayashi, Chilton and obviously Ericsson who didn't manage to drive a lap in this session.

Q2 was a bit more of the same as the second part of Q1 with all drivers going on on the super soft option tyres. Rosberg eventually ended up fastest, now ahead of both Williams cars and further followed Vettel, Magnussen, Ricciardo and Alonso. In the dying seconds Sergio Perez managed to secure his spot in Q3, setting the tenth time and eliminating Jenson Button.

Also out are Raikkonen who didn't even complete his final flying lap, along with Vergne, Gutierrez, Grosjean and of course Lewis Hamilton, having not come into action in this second part of qualifying.

What's left is Q3 where Rosberg was again out early to immediately put his foot down, posting a 1:16.5, making everybody else realise the German is not kidding around. Bottas' first attempt is good for second place, half a second down on Rosberg. Massa is another two tenths down, followed by Vettel, Magnussen, Ricciardo and Alonso. Kvyat is 8th, ahead of both Force India cars.

With little less than two minutes left in the session, Perez is the first man out again, improving to 6th. Everybody except Rosberg also improved though, relegating Perez back to 10th. Bottas however notably qualified only 219 thousandths behind Rosberg, a impressive feat and a confirmation of the ever improving form of the Williams cars.