German Grand Prix Qualifying
The final qualifying session before the summer break for the teams and drivers, it was the German Grand Prix Qualifying session and what a session it was!
Rosberg will be starting from pole position at his home grand prix with team-mate Lewis Hamilton in second place. Below we have all the reaction from the drivers and teams after the qualifying session earlier today.
German Grand Prix Qualifying – Driver Lineup
- Nico Rosberg
- Lewis Hamilton
- Daniel Ricciardo
- Max Verstappen
- Kimi Raikkonen
- Sebastian Vettel
- Nico Hulkenberg
- Valtteri Bottas
- Sergio Perez
- Felipe Massa
German Grand Prix Qualifying – Red Bull Racing Reaction
Daniel Ricciardo
Start Position: 3rd
“In Q3 I knew I had to find some more time and I put a really good lap together in the first run. Then I knew there wasn’t much more for the second run so I probably tried a little bit too hard and made a few mistakes, but in the end it was a nice qualifying.“
“Third is a good place to start. Hopefully we can look at Mercedes tomorrow and have a good battle with them and not focus on what’s happening behind us. The feeling in the team is very good at the moment. In the last three races now both Red Bulls have been in front of Ferrari and it seems like we’re getting a little bit closer to Mercedes.“
“Everyone in the team is happy and it’s nice standing here knowing that I’m in the top three. Tomorrow I think we’ll have a good chance. The long runs yesterday looked a bit better than they did in Budapest so let’s see.“
“I’ll start the race on slightly older tyres because I had to do two laps in Q2, which means they are not as fresh for the start but it’ll be fine. I’ll go hard and hopefully get in front and at least lead some of the race. If I can’t lead the last lap then I’ll try and lead some and be on TV. Whoo!”
Max Verstappen
Start Position: 4th
“I’m feeling really good, it was a smooth qualifying. Q3 was strong, it was just a bit of a shame about my last sector where I washed out and lost a few tenths.“
“It’s quite tough to get the tyres in the right window but we still managed a good time. The main target is to be in front of the Ferraris and that is what we have done. That said, we know they will be quick in the race as we saw last week.”
“Mercedes look pretty strong but we are not that far away so I think we can be very happy with that. It’s my first time here in a Formula 1 car and not an easy track to learn so I’m really pleased with today. We can both be satisfied to be on the second row as this track wasn’t expected to be the best for us. Race pace is looking very good for the moment.“
“We definitely want to be challenging for a podium tomorrow, I think a win might be difficult though.”
Christian Horner – Team Principal
“For the third qualifying in succession that’s a second row lockout for the team.”
“A strong performance by both the drivers and we are actually closer to Mercedes than we thought, but they were ultimately out of reach. It puts us in a very good position for tomorrow’s race.“
German Grand Prix Qualifying – Sauber F1 Reaction
Marcus Ericsson
Start Position – 22nd
“It is a disappointing result to start the race from the last row. It seemed to be a positive weekend, as we were going in the right direction and also found some positive results with the new rear wing.“
“In terms of the car’s balance, I felt comfortable. But in qualifying, especially, our performance is not good enough. It will be a tough race, but, as always, we will do what we can.“
Felipe Nasr
Start Position – 21st
“It has been another difficult qualifying for us. I felt I was on a good lap, although we cannot see it in the result.“
“At the moment, this is the maximum we can extract out of our current package in qualifying. We have saved a set of tyres, so hopefully we can make good use of them in the race.”
“We normally have a decent race pace, so I am confident I can move up a few positions. As always, I will do my best.“
German Grand Prix Qualifying – Sahara Force India Reaction
Nico Hülkenberg
Start Position – 7th
Nico: “I’m feeling pretty happy to qualify in seventh for my home race – it’s best of the rest behind the top three teams and a good effort by the whole team.”
“Our objective is always to maximise our potential and it feels like we achieved that today. Most of my laps in the session came together nicely and my final effort in Q3 was spot on. We can expect a tough fight for good points tomorrow, but we are in a good starting position and we’ve looked strong here in all the sessions.“
“The long run pace is competitive, too, so we’ve got every chance of getting a great result this weekend. There is talk of some rain tomorrow and to be honest I would not mind a shower during the race, but let’s wait and see what happens.”
Sergio Perez
Start Position – 9th
Sergio: “It was a fun and very intense fight with Nico and the two Williams cars throughout qualifying, and in the end it was really close between the four of us.“
“It was crucial to get through Q1 on one set of tyres because some other teams had to use two sets and this gave us a small advantage in Q2, which helped us make the top ten. On my last lap of Q3 I struggled a bit through some of the right-hand corners; I think I may have picked something up on my front wing – maybe some debris – and that cost me some time, but it’s something I will analyse with the team.“
“In the end, it was so close and just a few hundredths of a second made the difference. Tomorrow is going to be interesting. We are starting on the supersofts on which we qualified and we will need to work well as a team to make the strategy work and score some important points.”
Robert Fernley – Deputy Team Principal
“Today’s qualifying performance is a good effort from both sides of the garage and sets us up nicely for a strong race tomorrow. The car has shown good speed since the start of practice and it’s satisfying to convert our potential into representative starting positions.“
“In Q3 it was a very close fight with Williams, with Nico just edging ahead of Bottas. There are several strategy options for us to explore this evening, but we are well placed to make the most of whichever approach we take in the race. Tomorrow should bring an interesting and exciting race“
German Grand Prix Qualifying – Jenson Button
Jenson Button said the following after the German Grand Prix Qualifying Session.
“This weekend has been pretty tough for me, I had a few issues yesterday and got out of the car earlier because of my eye and this morning we also had a couple of problems.“
“It was a little bit unknown going into the qualifying session and still, it wasn’t that great. P12 is ok however it’s still not quite there, especially with the balance of the car.“
“The race is tomorrow and we’ll see what we can do.“
The Formula 1 Girl 🙂
xxx