FULLY SICK GRID IN GERMANY FOR F1

Ill-health has played a major role in the composition of the grid for the German Grand Prix. Both Ferrari’s suffered from mechanical issues during qualifying as Sebastian Vettel barely completed an outlap before a turbo issue forced him into the pit lane, while Charles Leclerc failed to set a time in Q3 as a reported fuel pressure issue consigned the car to the garage.

Max Verstappen also missed the majority of Q2 as the Red Bull Team looked to address a intermittent power boost issue reported by Verstappen during his out lap. The number 33 returned to the track in the latter stages of the session on soft tyres and duly qualified well inside the top 10. Daniel Ricciardo briefly held 10th place as the chequered flag waved at the conclusion of Q2 but tumbled down to 13th as the final runners beat his time. In a tightly fought midfield battle, Ricciardo missed out by 23/1000ths of a second.

Charles Leclerc was defaulted to 10th when his Ferrari failed to break cover in the final portion of qualifying while Lewis Hamilton took pole position from Verstappen as he battled the effects of illness that has accompanied him to Germany.

Lewis Hamilton’s pole lap was all the more remarkable as the multiple World Champion battled illness and the team looked to assign Hamilton’s seat to Esteban Ocon in the event that Hamilton was unable to continue.

“I was really not expecting to be able to fight for pole today,” he told Sky Sports F1.“I felt pretty bad this morning and there was a moment where we weren’t even sure we would be doing the weekend. But I’ve never missed a race weekend in my life and that’s something as competitors, you can’t miss a single race. So I’ve just been resting in between – I haven’t even been in most of the meetings, I’ve been sleeping and then I wake up, get dressed and get in the car. But the team have done such a great job in terms of the processes we went through and I was really happy with the car in the last lap.”

“I don’t know how we did it today – I’m not quite sure what happened to the Ferrari’s,” Lewis Hamilton said. “They have been really fast all weekend. We brought some upgrades this weekend as well. The car’s been feeling good but the Ferrari’s just really were slightly on another level. But I think the time at the end was good enough to be able to compete at least with Leclerc if he had done a lap at the end. It would have been definitely close between us.”

Sebastian Vettel later admitted to feelings of bitterness when he climbed from his Ferrari during Q1.“I don’t know what happened, something broke with the turbo and that was game over from there,” Vettel told reporters. “Obviously very bitter, I think the car was great and I lost out on a big chance but hopefully we’ll have a big one coming tomorrow. I’m looking forward to the race but obviously it would’ve been nicer to start at the very front than the very back, but we’ll see what happens.”

Results

1. Lewis Hamilton
2. Max Verstappen
3. Valtteri Bottas
4. Pierre Gasly
5. Kimi Raikkonen
6. Romain Grosjean
7. Carlos Sainz Jnr
8. Sergio Perez
9. Nico Hulkenberg
10. Charles Leclerc

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