Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/709569
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 31 JULY 2016 Sport 50 AN electrical issue meant Rosberg had to abandon his first run, and therefore headed out for one single three-lap stint three minutes from the finish. At that point Hamilton was provisionally fastest, but with the pressure on Rosberg vaulted his team mate to claim top spot. Hamilton had time to respond, and was even up in the first sector - but he couldn't quite deny Rosberg a second straight pole on home turf. Red Bull proved Mercedes' clos- est challengers, edging Ferrari to lock out the second row of the grid. Daniel Ricciardo labelled the lap that earned him third - just one tenth ahead of Max Verstappen - as a 'beauty'. Ferrari were therefore confined to the third row, Kimi Raikkonen this time getting the better of home favourite Sebastian Vettel, while Force India and Williams rounded out the top ten through Nico Hulk- enberg, Valtteri Bottas, Sergio Perez and Felipe Massa respectively - the quartet incredibly split by just 0.1s. Esteban Gutierrez was unlucky to miss out on a Q3 berth, the Haas man winding up 11th ahead of McLaren's Jenson Button. The Brit- on's team mate Fernando Alonso was 14th, giving him a share of row seven with compatriot and Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz. The latter's team mate Daniil Kvyat was the biggest surprise cas- ualty in Q1, exiting alongside both Saubers, both Manors, and the Re- nault of Kevin Magnussen. Mercedes fired an ominous warn- ing to the rest of the field in that session, as they opted to run on the soft tyre - the rest of the field were on supersofts - and still wound up fastest, with Hamilton marginally ahead of Rosberg, Ricciardo and Raikkonen. It looked as if Manor had got through to Q2 right up until the dying moments, but good laps for Button, Sainz and Renault's Jolyon Palmer left Pascal Wehrlein - who had been 13th fastest after the opening runs - eliminated in 18th. Kevin Magnussen in the second Re- nault was just 0.001s ahead in 17th, but was also eliminated, with team mate Palmer scraping into Q2 by just 0.080s. Kvyat, Rio Haryanto in the second Manor, and the Saubers of Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson, com- pleted the bottom six in Q1. Both Mercedes switched to super- softs for Q2, and Hamilton again headed Rosberg, 1m 14.748s to 1m 14.839s. This time Verstappen got closest, on the same rubber, with 1m 15.124s, followed by Raikkonen, Bottas, Perez and Ricciardo. Further down, Vettel and Massa just made it through to Q3, leav- ing an impressive Gutierrez a dis- appointed 11th on 1m 15.883s for Haas ahead of Button, Sainz and Alonso. Romain Grosjean - whose gearbox was changed ahead of qualifying - was 15th for Haas on 1m 16.086s, with Palmer 16th on 1m 16.665s. Sainz is under investigation for potentially impeding Massa un- fairly during Q2. Q3 then opened with the electri- cal worry for Rosberg, and there was further concern for Mercedes as a fabulous run by Ricciardo saw him book a provisional front row slot alongside Hamilton. On his first pukka run Rosberg got the job done beautifully, how- ever. Smooth and fast and at his very best, the German stopped the clocks in 1m 14.363s. Hamilton's reply was a little untidy, and though he improved slightly to 1m 14.470s it wasn't enough. Ricciardo also failed to improve but stayed third as Verstappen improved to 1m 14.834s, leaving the Ferraris breathless. Raikkonen stayed ahead of the troubled Vettel, with 1m 15.142s to 1m 15.315s. With Grosjean's looming five- place penalty factored in, the grid is set to line up thus: Rosberg, Ham- ilton; Ricciardo, Verstappen; Raik- konen, Vettel; Hulkenberg, Bottas; Perez, Massa; Gutierrez, Button; Sainz, Alonso; Palmer, Magnussen; Wehrlein, Kvyat; Haryanto, Gros- jean; Nasr, Ericsson. FORMULA 1 Last-gasp Rosberg grabs home pole Nico Rosberg snatched a dramatic home pole at Hockenheim on Saturday, beating Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.1s despite being restricted to a single run in the final Q3 shootout Qualifying results - 2016 German Formula 1 Grand Prix Pos. Driver Team Q1 Q2 Q3 Laps 1. N. Rosberg Mercedes 01:15.485 01:14.839 01:14.363 12 2. L. Hamilton Mercedes 01:15.243 01:14.748 01:14.470 12 3. D. Ricciardo Red Bull 01:15.591 01:15.545 01:14.726 14 4. M. Verstappen Red Bull 01:15.875 01:15.124 01:14.834 12 5. K. Raikkonen Ferrari 01:15.752 01:15.242 01:15.142 12 6. S. Vettel Ferrari 01:15.927 01:15.630 01:15.315 14 7. N. Hulkenberg Force India 01:16.301 01:15.623 01:15.510 15 8. V. Bottas Williams 01:15.952 01:15.490 01:15.530 12 9. S. Perez Force India 01:16.169 01:15.500 01:15.537 17 10. F. Massa Williams 01:16.503 01:15.699 01:15.615 13 11. E. Gutiérrez Haas 01:15.987 01:15.883 14 12. J. Button McLaren 01:16.172 01:15.909 14 13. C. Sainz Jr. Toro Rosso 01:16.317 01:15.989 12 14. F. Alonso McLaren 01:16.338 01:16.041 11 15. R. Grosjean Haas 01:16.328 01:16.086 14 16. J. Palmer Renault 01:16.636 01:16.665 14 17. K. Magnussen Renault 01:16.716 8 18. P. Wehrlein Manor 01:16.717 10 19. D. Kvyat Toro Rosso 01:16.876 6 20. R. Haryanto Manor 01:16.977 9 21. F. Nasr Sauber 01:17.123 6 22. M. Ericsson Sauber 01:17.238 6 Sainz, Grosjean get grid penalties CARLOS Sainz and Romain Grosjean will both take grid drops for today's Formula 1 Grosser Preis von Deutschland at Hockenheim. Sainz has been issued a three-place penalty after being deemed to have unfairly im- peded Williams' Felipe Massa in Turn 2 during the second phase of qualifying on Satur- day afternoon. The Spaniard, who had qualified 13th for Toro Rosso, was also handed two penalty points on his Superlicence - taking him to four points in total, of the permitted 12 with- in a calendar year. Grosjean's penalty mean- while relates to a gearbox change that Haas were forced to make between FP3 and the start of qualifying. The Frenchman, who had booked 15th, will drop five places. There could yet be further changes, as stewards are cur- rently investigating Nico Hulkenberg and Force India for an alleged technical breach. The team were referred to the stewards after Hulkenberg ap- parently used a set of super- softs in Q1 that had been elec- tronically returned after FP3. Current regulations state that teams must hand back two sets of tyres, which cannot be used again, before qualifying begins. Nico Rosberg