German Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton beats Vettel to pole

Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes (pictured) takes pole at 2013 German Grand Prix

It looks like ‘Tyre-Gate’ has been quashed before it started at the German Grand Prix, with a new tyre from Pirelli, no punctures and teams under order for minimum tyre pressures.

But new tyres or not, it’s still Mercedes and Red Bull at the front of the grid, with Lewis Hamilton snatching pole position from Sebastian Vettel in the last throw of the dice in final qualifying by 0.103s. Behind Vettel was Mark Webber in the second Red Bull, followed by Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean in Lotus and Daniel Ricciardo in the Toro Rosso.

Rosberg didn’t make the top ten after Mercedes made a mess in Q2 and didn’t send him out for a final lap at the end of the session, and he dropped to 11th whilst sitting twiddling his thumbs in the garage.

Alonso only managed eighth place, one place behind team mate Massa, but he was running his Ferrari on the slower mediums for qualifying, in the hope he can grab the lead in the race as all ahead of him are on softs which are expected to go off after five laps.

Button managed to sneak in to final qualifying in the McLaren – mainly due to Mercedes bad call with Rosberg – and will start tomorrow in ninth, four ahead of team mate Perez in 13th. Nico Hulkenberg in the Sauber made the last top ten place.

We do still have the chance there will be a driver ‘Tyre Strike’ tomorrow if Pirelli’s tyres start giving out again, but that seems to have gone from a distinct possibility to a remote one.

By Cars UK