GERMAN GP – QUALIFYING RESULTS

Report – Fernando Alonso will start from seventh on row 4, while Kimi Raikkonen will be in twelfth place on row 6. There was drama in Q1, with the session being red flagged, after a technical problem resulted in Lewis Hamilton crashing heavily into the barriers. The session resumed for a seven minute mini-session in which both Scuderia men made it to the next part.

Alonso dealt with Q2 quite comfortably, but Kimi, after a good first timed lap, was unable to follow the majority in improving on his second, so he failed to make the cut to Q3 by a tenth.

Final Times:

Pos Driver                Team                 Time          Gap   
 1. Nico Rosberg          Mercedes             1m16.540s            
 2. Valtteri Bottas       Williams-Mercedes    1m16.759s  +0.219s   
 3. Felipe Massa          Williams-Mercedes    1m17.078s  +0.538s   
 4. Kevin Magnussen       McLaren-Mercedes     1m17.214s  +0.674s   
 5. Daniel Ricciardo      Red Bull-Renault     1m17.273s  +0.733s   
 6. Sebastian Vettel      Red Bull-Renault     1m17.577s  +1.037s   
 7. Fernando Alonso       Ferrari              1m17.649s  +1.109s   
 8. Daniil Kvyat          Toro Rosso-Renault   1m17.965s  +1.425s   
 9. Nico Hulkenberg       Force India-Mercedes 1m18.014s  +1.474s   
10. Sergio Perez          Force India-Mercedes 1m18.035s  +1.495s   
Q2 cut-off time: 1m18.161s                                   Gap **
11. Jenson Button         McLaren-Mercedes     1m18.193s  +1.084s
12. Kimi Raikkonen        Ferrari              1m18.273s  +1.164s
13. Jean-Eric Vergne      Toro Rosso-Renault   1m18.285s  +1.176s
14. Esteban Gutierrez     Sauber-Ferrari       1m18.787s  +1.678s
15. Romain Grosjean       Lotus-Renault        1m18.983s  +1.874s
16. Lewis Hamilton        Mercedes             no time
Q1 cut-off time: 1m18.927s                                     Gap *
17. Adrian Sutil          Sauber-Ferrari       1m19.142s  +1.511s
18. Jules Bianchi         Marussia-Ferrari     1m19.676s  +2.045s
19. Pastor Maldonado      Lotus-Renault        1m20.195s  +2.564s
20. Kamui Kobayashi       Caterham-Renault     1m20.408s  +2.777s
21. Max Chilton           Marussia-Ferrari     1m20.489s  +2.858s
22. Marcus Ericsson       Caterham-Renault     no time

QUOTES

Kimi Raikkonen: “This weekend, a few technical problems meant I spent more time in the garage than usual, but already, as from yesterday afternoon, my feeling with the car had improved. Today, in Q1 things went reasonably well, but then in Q2, when I fitted the second set of new Supersofts, my car was sliding all over the place and I lost the back end in turn 2. After that, it was impossible to put a good lap together.

I’m not happy with my grid position, but I hope things can go better in tomorrow’s race. It’s likely the weather could be different tomorrow and the temperatures will be lower. We will try and make the most of any opportunity because we want to have a nice race and bring home a good number of points.”

Ferrari pins hopes on cooler race

Raikkonen rues Q2 errors: “On the second run, for some reason I lost the rear in corner two, lost a lot of time and it was difficult to gain back the time after that,” he conceded, “I also lost time in the last sector, so I couldn’t put the lap together. It had felt pretty okay up to that point. We had a problem yesterday morning and a problem this morning, which doesn’t help, but the car was feeling pretty good yesterday morning and this morning, so it was an unfortunate thing. But it happens.”

It has happened perhaps more than most to Raikkonen since his return to Maranello, but the Finn is refusing to let things get him down.

“It’s just different things [affecting qualifying],” he admitted, “In the races, it hasn’t been that good either, so it’s just things going wrong or I’m making mistakes and haven’t been able to put a proper lap together for a long time. But it’s been feeling much better here, more like it should. It’s not exactly as I want, as it feels good for one run then, on the next, you lose the rear for no reason, but I’m not trying anything stupid. It’s so on edge that it’s difficult to predict what it’s going to do and one slip, like I had on corner two, and you lose all the speed on the straight. When it happens in moments like that, it makes a big difference.”

Shrugging off the lost of FRICS – ‘I don’t feel any difference’ – and the brake failure suffered by fellow Brembo user Lewis Hamilton – ‘they have happened to me and I know, out of 100 or 200 discs, there can be some odd issues’ – Raikkonen also played down the potential significance of having an extra set of tyres for qualifying outside the top ten.

“I’d much rather be more up in the front [rather than having an extra set of tyres], but I’ll have to see how the weather is tomorrow,” he reasoned, “It’s supposed to be a bit cooler, but who knows… I’d just like to make a good race and score good points.”