2018 German Grand Prix F1: Vettel takes pole position at home, with Hamilton dropping to 14th

The 2018 German F1 Grand Prix has turned out very much in Sebastian Vettel‘s favour. The German driver took pole position at home, which in itself is good news for his aspirations, but in addition his main rival, Lewis Hamilton, failed to get past Q1 due to mechanical problems and is relegated to 14th place on the starting grid.

The mechanical problems with the Mercedes driven by the Stevenage man were the main protagonists of a qualifying session that was decided at the last moment. Finn Valtteri Bottas tried to save the day for the local team, but Sebastian Vettel improved on the time of the Briton’s car Mercedes on his final attempt to claim pole position number 55 of his career, in front of the crowd filling the stands at Hockenheim.

Lewis Hamilton will not be the only driver we see starting further back than usual, as Daniel Ricciardo will start from the last position because the Red Bull team decided to change the engine in the Australian’s car for this grand prix. That said, beyond whether Bottas can challenge Vettel for first place, the excitement of the race will lie in seeing how far these two drivers are able to climb back.

As for the Spanish contingent, the best was Carlos Sainz, who managed to reach Q3 and set the eighth-best time of the session, although he could not beat his teammate Renault Nico Hülkenberg. Sainz hopes to be in the points, as does Fernando Alonso, who finished very satisfied after achieving the eleventh-best time and sees the possibility of scoring one more point as realistic.

The full times from the qualifying session at the 2018 German Grand Prix F1 were as follows: