Rosberg Takes Home Grand Prix Pole

HOCKENHEIM, Germany- Wearing his brand new helmet in recognition of his home country’s World Cup triumph, Nico Rosberg made his home fans happy again as he clocked a best time 1:16:540 to take pole for Sunday’s German Grand Prix. Valteri Bottas and Felipe Massa kept the hopes of Williams alive as they finished second and third, respectively.

“That was a quite challenging qualifying session”. Exclaimed Rosberg afterwards. “The option tire lasts only for one quick lap and without FRIC we had a lot do adjust the set-up. I had a difficult start because I didn’t really feel comfortable with the balance in the braking zones but that gradually improved through the sessions. The quickest lap at the end was really a good one. So I’m really happy to start from the top position here at our home Grand Prix.”

Lewis Hamilton was one driver that expected to give Rosberg a problem this weekend, but even after posting a decent time in the first qualifying session, the Briton had a problem with his brakes later on and came out of the Sachs curve at high speed and struck the barriers. Hamilton claimed that he lost his brakes suddenly in that part of the circuit and that although he was alright after the incident, Hamilton stated that all he was turned out to be was sore from the impact. Hamilton will start the race 15th. Adrian Sutil left the first session, failing to advance along with Pastor Maldonado, who just renewed his contract for another year with Lotus.

In the second session, Jenson Button and Kimi Raikkonen, joined the list of drivers who failed to advance to the final session, while Esteban Gutierrez, Romain Grosjean and Jean-Eric Vergne also did not continue.

Although Bottas was the only driver to come close to Rosberg’s best time in the final session, the Finn was still a couple of tenths off, but his qualifying proves that he is very steady, following an outstanding performance earlier in the year qualifying in Austria. For the rest of the grid, Kevin Magnussen took fourth in his McLaren, while Red Bull drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel were fifth and sixth, respectively. Fernando Alonso was a quiet seventh, while Dani Kvyat finished eighth. Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez rounded out the grid with their Force India entry’s.

Despite the victory, Rosberg knows that there is still tomorrow and that he was disappointed in knowing that Hamilton will not start next to him on the front row, which has been the case many times this season.

But I can’t be too pleased about today because of the accident Lewis suffered, I’m glad he is fine. Rosberg said. “I would have preferred to have the normal fight for the pole with him. But I’m sure he will fly through the field as our car is still the quickest out there. So our German fans will see an exciting race tomorrow.”

Mark Gero

Mark Gero has written formula one racing stories since 2002 on the Internet for such sites as Motorsport.com, Racing Information Service News and for a brief time at the Munich Eye newspaper in Munich, Germany along with Autoweek online. Mark also has a diploma in journalism from the London School of Journalism in London, England and in addition a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa.

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