(AP Photo/Jens Meyer). Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg of Germany steers his vehicle during the Formula One qualifying in Hockenheim, Germany, Saturday, July 30, 2016.
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“Hopefully we can look at Mercedes tomorrow and have a good battle with them and not focus on what’s happening behind us”, he said. With both of Red Bull’s two cars and freshly re-signed teammate Kimi Raikkonen outqualifying him, a dissappointing sixth may be too far down the grid for Vettel to have any hope of catching the leaders at the often processional Hockenheimring without some tricky strategy.
Meanwhile Rosberg dropped to fourth place after spinning his rear wheels and losing out to the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. Renault – Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer.
McLaren driver Jenson Button was 12th ahead of Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz Jr., who is under investigation for impeding Massa at Turn 2.
Q1 lasted 18 minutes, but nobody but the Manor and Haas boys was interested in going out straight away.
Rosberg clocked a 1:15.485, and Hamilton beat that with a 1:15.243.
After the first round of runs, the bubble area contained Kvyat in 15th, Gutierrez in 16th and Haryanto in 17th.
Hamilton mistakes prove costly: Hamilton lost time on his final lap when he locked up at the hairpin and again when he over-drove in the stadium section, while Rosberg revelled in the technical demands of the track and obeyed the adage of “making the vehicle do the work”. Both were on the super soft slicks.
“I had the pace today but just couldn’t finish it off on that last lap, so”, he said.
He emerged 5.4 seconds behind Verstappen but could make no progress towards the Red Bulls and had to settle for a disappointing fourth.
Mercedes are in their element here – it’s a track that rewards a lot of power, and the Silver Arrows certainly have that.
But Rosberg, anxious to get back to winning ways, had a warning for Hamilton.
Fernando Alonso was 14th after running wide over a curb and shedding some small parts of his front wing in the stadium section, although he also complained about being held up by Vettel’s slow Ferrari.
Grosjean was punished, though, after a gearbox change Haas were forced to make between FP3 and the start of qualifying, the Frenchman handed a five-place penalty to see him start 20th.
Vettel and Perez were the first out. The stewards adjudged Rosberg to have been at fault and meted out a controversial five-second penalty at his third and final stop.
Rosberg was told to get his head down and focus on opening up a gap to Verstappen behind, something he did in the laps that followed.
On his first pukka run Rosberg got the job done beautifully, however.
Now all 10 drivers were in action.
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“I didn’t feel that comfortable in qualifying”, Vettel said.
