Nico Rosberg has taken pole position for the Formula 1 German Grand Prix from the Hockenheimring on Saturday. Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton qualified in second place just behind him, unable to take the top spot from his teammate for the second consecutive race.
German Grand Prix 2016 qualifying results: Nico Rosberg gets pole position
Rosberg will lead Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton as he tries to retake the lead in the Drivers’ Championship.
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Hamilton took the lead in the Drivers’ Championship for the first time last weekend, when he won the Hungarian Grand Prix -- his fifth victory in six races. That run turned a Rosberg 43-point lead into a Hamilton six-point lead, and he’ll be hoping to extend that lead on Sunday, though he’ll have to overtake Rosberg in the process.
The Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen locked out the second row, with the Ferraris of Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel locking out the third row. Nico Hülkenberg of Force India, Valtteri Bottas of Williams, Sergio Pérez of Force India and Felipe Massa of Williams rounded out the top 10.
The first qualifying session saw Marcus Ericsson, Felipe Nasr, Rio Haryanto, Daniil Kvyat, Pascal Wehrlein and Kevin Magnussen all eliminated as the bottom six drivers. It was a huge disappointment for Kvyat, who has struggled since being demoted from Red Bull to Toro Rosso in favor of Verstappen. He has just two points since joining Toro Rosso and will have a lot of ground to make up on race day.
It was also a rough session for Haryanto, who doesn’t have a contract for the remaining races on the calendar after Sunday’s race. It’s unclear if he’s run his last race for Manor this season.
Both Jenson Button of McLaren and Esteban Gutiérrez of the American-owned Haas team appeared to put themselves into the final qualifying session with no time on the clock, but the drivers still out on the track managed to set better times and the two drivers were ultimately pushed out in the second qualifying session.
Gutiérrez, Button, Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, Romain Grosjean and Jolyon Palmer were the drivers who were eliminated in the second session. Once again, Haas was unable to find the third qualifying session and despite strong showings from the McLaren drivers in recent races, they were out in the session as well.
Below are the full qualifying results from Saturday:
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