Lewis Hamilton takes third pole position of 2013 in Germany - Mercedes have highs and lows in front of the home fans
Published by Christine
The sun continued to shine over the Nürburgring as qualifying got underway. The usual suspects were out in the first session, both Marussia and both Caterham drivers - Charles Pic led the four - and both Williams drivers also dropped out early.
Into the second session, and the midfield battle was fierce. Mercedes made a terrible call to leave their drivers in the pitlane at the end of the session, as the lap times started dropping significantly. Nico Rosberg was fifth and he dropped and dropped until eventually he stopped in 11th place, unable to do anything about it.
Teammate Lewis Hamilton was just a couple of places ahead but got into Q3. Sebastian Vettel set the benchmark, which Mark Webber was unable to beat. Daniel Ricciardo posted the sixth fastest time, another good performance from the Toro Rosso driver.
Jenson Button and Nico Hülkenberg were in to the top ten but opted not to set a time to save rubber for tomorrow. And so it was up to Lewis Hamilton to halt the Red Bull charge, and he did so, snatching pole position by just one tenth of a second.
