Lewis Hamilton will start the 2019 German Grand Prix from pole position after setting the fastest time in the final session of qualifying with Max Verstappen in second and Valtteri Bottas in third at the Hockenheimring in Germany.
After clearly showing good promising times during free practice, Ferrari showed good pace and left a hefty margin of rivals Mercedes. However, the momentum vanished almost immediately after Sebastian Vettel, setting off to qualify for his home Grand Prix left the pit lane in the first session and reported loss of power. Vettel crawled back to the pits and soon retired from qualifying with a turbo airflow issue which led to a loss of power from his engine. Vettel failed to set a time in Q1, therefore will start from the back of the grid. The first session of qualifying saw Norris, Albon and the two Williams of Russell, Kubica eliminated from qualifying along with the German driver, Vettel.
Drama with reliability continued in Q2, when Red Bull driver, Max Verstappen also complained over the radio of engine issues, however, a quick trip back through the pits, the mechanics were able to sort out the issue with his Honda power unit, and Verstappen was able to set a time and qualify for Q3. But Antonio Giovinazzi, Kevin Magnussen, Daniel Ricciardo, Danil Kvyat and Lance Stroll were unable to make it through to the final session of qualifying.
This left eight different constructors – including two Mercedes, two Red Bulls, a Ferrari, McLaren, Racing Point, Alfa Romeo, Haas and Renault to be represented in the final round of qualifying. But the mechanics in second Ferrari garage of Charles Leclerc to frantically try and fix an issue with the car as the third session of qualifying went underway. Leclerc was one of the drivers expected to be on pole, however, soon after all the cars were on track setting their lap times, Leclerc stepped out of his Ferrari to retire from the final session of qualifying and with a failure to set a lap time, Leclerc is said to start from 10th, provided he does not take a penalty for a power unit component change for the race.
This left an open goal for Mercedes at their home race which they fully exploited with Lewis Hamilton setting the fastest lap of the session, followed by Verstappen to lock out the front row. Valterri Bottas and the second Red Bull of Pierre Gasly will start fro the second row. But with Ferrari out of the picture, this left the midfield runners to move up the field. But it was the most experienced driver on the grid, Kimi Raikkonen who was able to put his Alfa Romeo in fifth and will start ahead of Romain Grosjean in the Haas, Carlos Sainz in the McLaren, Sergio Perez in the Racing Point and Nico Hulkenberg will start 9th for Renault ahead of the Ferrari of Leclerc.