Nico Rosberg’s seizing of pole for the German Grand Prix was one of the most impressive performances of his career – an offering, almost, to those who feel that this admirable driver is too rarely an exceptional one.
It was also a timely blow. Not only is this his home race but also, before the summer break, he had to make some sort of a statement after his 43-point lead in the Formula One world championship has been lost, with Lewis Hamilton winning five of the past six races to take the lead in the championship in Hungary last week.
It was Rosberg’s 27th career pole, his fifth of the season and it ties the German 6-6 in his qualifying tussles with Hamilton this year. More importantly, though, for a psyche damaged after being pulverized by his Mercedes team-mate in recent weeks, Rosberg beat his great rival in a very proper sense, going throttle-toe to throttle-toe at the very end of the session.
He had one run at it, after aborting an earlier effort because of an electronic error that cut his engine. Hamilton, under pressure to beat the German’s time, was on course to claim front of grid for Sunday’s race but then locked up and was beaten down to second place by one-tenth of a second.
Rosberg, whose father, Keke, won pole here for McLaren 30 years ago, said it was a great feeling.
Drivers always say that, but this time the spark in his eyes lent a special credence to his words.
“It was just a great lap,” he said. “Not only was it just one lap that I had but I also had extra fuel to make sure that I would have an extra shot if something happened. I had fuel for three laps. So there was some more time in the bag. I was really satisfied with that one. That was really cool.”
Two hours later those eyes were still sparkling. “It was one my best laps ever, for sure, under the circumstances,” the German said, nodding vigorously as if to convince any doubters. “And very satisfying. For me, it’s important to win the race tomorrow. That would be awesome. I will give it everything and I’m feeling good.”
Hamilton has been so ruthlessly efficient in scything himself back into the championship that most neutrals would favour a win for Rosberg. He will start ahead of Hamilton for a second consecutive weekend, but while the Briton beat his team-mate on the run down to turn one in Hungary last Sunday, a shorter start here ensures a repeat scenario is rather less likely.
Everyone knows that Hamilton is the faster driver, already one of the legends; we just do not want everything settled before there is an autumn chill in the air. Hamilton, not unreasonably, has other ideas and promised to rebound from the error in qualifying yesterday.
“I’m not down,” he said. “I’ve got a race to win tomorrow. I can make a difference. And I will. It’s been a good weekend. I had the pace today but I just couldn’t finish it off in the last lap. It’s a much easier track for overtaking, one of the easier ones.”
Behind the Mercedes pair on the grid will be the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen. Behind them will be the Ferrari pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel. It was yet another day of over-achievement by Force India, with Nico Hülkenberg and Sergio Pérez, who is being linked with a move to Renault next year, making the top 10.
Vettel, whose many frustrations this season have kept the radio-bleep men busy, looked forlorn once again. “I didn’t really feel that comfortable in qualifying,” the German said. “I was very happy with my final attempt, but it was just not quick enough so it didn’t come together.
“It’s something that we need to understand, where we are missing out to everyone else. Overall, it’s a decent result, but we’re not here to finish fifth and sixth, we’re here to challenge for pole on Saturday and win on Sunday.”
The McLarens of Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso again failed to make the top‑10 shootout. In Q1, a storming late lap from Jolyon Palmer enabled him to edge out his Renault team‑mate, Kevin Magnussen, and qualify 16th, later promoted to 14th because of grid penalties handed out to Romain Grosjean (gearbox change) and Carlos Sainz (impeding).
Hamilton questioned the decision to reject the Halo cockpit safety device for 2017.
It is understood that he had brought it up at the drivers’ briefing on Friday night, when Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One chief executive, had explained the conclusions reached by the strategy group the previous day. “I don’t really know why it isn’t going to be there next year,” Hamilton said with an incredulous shrug. “That was the point I made really.
“I had asked that if we are unfortunate enough to have an incident in the next year and a half, and we knew we had a solution for it that would play a role in [helping] that – we will be really kicking ourselves. Well, we won’t, they will. Because they have a solution that does help.
“The FIA has done a fantastic job for the last 20 odd years and always has made good safety steps.”
