- German GP - Qualifying
Rosberg takes pole as Hamilton crashes out
Nico Rosberg took pole position at the German Grand Prix after Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton crashed out of contention in the first stage of qualifying, leaving him 15th on Sunday's grid.
Hamilton's accident came at the Sachs hairpin in the stadium section when his front-right brake failed, pitching the car into a spin across the gravel and into the barriers. He walked away from the accident but before lifting himself out of the stricken Mercedes he radioed his team to say: "I put my foot on the brake pedal and something failed".
Williams' Valtteri Bottas ran Rosberg closest in the final stage of qualifying but was still 0.219s shy of the Mercedes on pole. Felipe Massa secured third on the grid in the second Williams ahead of an impressive performance from McLaren's Kevin Magnussen, who has looked quick all weekend. Daniel Ricciardo again out-qualified Red Bull team-mate Sebastian Vettel - by a margin of 0.3s - ahead of the quickest Ferrari of Fernando Alonso. The Toro Rosso of Daniil Kvyat took eighth on the grid in front of the two Force Indias.
Hamilton underwent precautionary checks at the medical centre but, despite being "sore from the crash", had no injuries. The nose of the car was heavily damaged and the accident stopped the session with red flags ahead of the second runs in Q1. Hamilton had already set a time earlier in the session, which was good enough to make Q2 and secure 15th on the grid for Sunday's race.
Ex-world champions Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen both failed to make the cut for Q3 as they struggled with their cars and ended up just shy of Sergio Perez in 10th. Jean-Eric Vergne also dropped out in Q2 after being out-performed by team-mate Daniil Kvyat once again. Esteban Gutierrez qualified 14th, which will become 17th once his three-place grid penalty from the British Grand Prix is applied. Romain Grosjean will start 14th as a result despite struggling with his Lotus.
After showing promising pace on Friday, Adrian Sutil was knocked out in Q1 ahead of Jules Bianchi, who did well to qualify his Marussia ahead of Pastor Malondado's Lotus. Kamui Kobayashi finished the session 20th ahead of Max Chilton, while Marcus Ericsson failed to set a time in the second Caterham due to an ongoing hydraulics issue from final practice.
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