“Well done, Nico, a fantastic lap and well done under the circumstances”, said Mercedes technical chief Paddy Lowe, who revealed that Rosberg’s vehicle was heavily fuelled.
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Rosberg, six points behind Hamilton in the championship, had been fastest in all three practice sessions at Hockenheim, and he made it count where it matters to secure his second pole in as many grands prix.
The Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen make up the second row.
The Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel were fifth and sixth.
“It is a great feeling”, said Rosberg.
“Yeah my first lap in Q3 was pretty good and I knew there probably wasn’t that much more on the table in the second run and in the end [I had] a couple of mistakes in that run so there was maybe a tenth or so in it with a flawless lap, but not enough to challenge for pole”.
Mercedes were first out in Q2, quickly setting times good enough for a single run to get through, Hamilton won this mini battle, by just 0.091 with a 1:14.748 lap of Hockenheim.
“Unbelievable”, he said, when told he was out again.
Rosberg had to abort his first run after experiencing a throttle problem close to the end of his lap, so he didn’t have a banker time after the first runs.
McLaren bowed out after Q2 with Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button not making the top 10.
The Mercedes driver had faced an investgation after Haas driver Romain Grosjean was forced to stop in the pit lane to avoid the Briton pulling out of his garage in front of him. “Definitely it will be an exciting race against Lewis and the Red Bulls and maybe also the Ferrari guys but they are a little bit further back it seems”.
Hamilton, predictably claimed provisional pole, 0.6 ahead of Verstappen, before Ricciardo smashed that by going just 0.2 down on the Mercedes.
Rosberg was under pressure, as his team said he had suffered an electrical error.
Hamilton was clearly annoyed to have been beaten – particularly given that it later emerged that Rosberg had been carrying a heavier fuel load during his flying lap.
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Hamilton came out for another try, but he was unable to outpace a team-mate at Hockenheim for the first time since 2008.
