Hamilton takes pole at Mercedes' home race

F1 Grand Prix, GP Germany, Nürburgring

Lewis Hamilton has taken pole position for Mercedes AMG at the team's home Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. Sebastian Vettel will join him on the front row of the grid, followed by the second Red Bull of Mark Webber.

With the sun out, the track temperature is higher than it has been this weekend, reaching 40°C at the start of qualifying. Air temperature is around 24°C.

The first drivers out on track are from lower ranked teams, including Caterham, Marussia and Williams. Force India join the party 6 minutes into the session while Mercedes get out on track another few minutes later.

At the halfway mark, Rosberg is the first of the front challengers to set a time, posting the second quickest time on medium tyres. Ricciardo is fastest at the moment, having completed the one lap of the circuit in 1:31.081 on the soft tyre. Hamilton soon follows and goes a little bit faster than his teammate, but slower than Ricciardo.

8 minutes from the end, Alonso begins 3 timed laps, surprisingly immediately on the soft tyres. He goes fastest on his first attempt in 1:30.709, soon to be bettered by Raikkonen who is also on soft tyres.

With 2 minutes left, everybody is on softs, also Force India who did their initial runs on the prime tyres. Only Mercedes and Red Bull are now in the pits with both cars as they are confident their runs on the medium tyres will suffice to get through to Q2.

At the end of the session, Massa goes fastest at the closing stages. This means Bottas, Maldonado, Pic, Bianchi, Van der Garde and Chilton are out. This ends a troubled qualifying for Williams' 600th Grand Prix.

As Q2 kicks off, Vergne is the first man out on track, soon followed by Di Resta. McLaren only decide to come out 6 minutes into the session while Red Bull are waiting even longer.

10 minutes into the session, Hamilton leads, ahead of Rosberg, Raikkonen, Alonso, Grosjean, Massa, Di Resta, Vergne, Hulkenberg and Button. Neither Red Bulls have set a time so far but both are on track to do so. 2 minutes later every driver is on the timesheet with Vettel ahead of Hamilton and Webber.

The last 2 minutes are of course again about improving times to certify a time for Q2. Grosjean is the first to move ahead, jumping up into second place, less than a tenth off of Vettel. Another minute later Alonso goes fastest, followed by Massa. Again, it's all extremely close.

Athe the closing stages Rosberg is 10th, Raikkonen 11th and Di Resta 12th. Button managed to to improve and get through, just like Hulkenberg and Raikkonen, meaning that Rosberg is eliminated, as he was simply sitting in the stand, hoping his earlier time would be enough.

Hence Rosberg will start from 11th tomorrow, ahead of Di Resta, Perez, Gutierrez, Sutil and Vergne.

At the start of Q3, Ricciardo leads Alonso and Massa out of the pitlane. Raikkonen follows one minute later.

Interestingly both Ferrari cars and Ricciardo cross the chequered flag once and then return to the pitlane, not setting a timed lap. All three later join the track on medium tyres to set a time and be able to start the race on medium tyres.

Halfway into the session, Hamilton puts the fastest laptime on the timesheet, faster than Vettel, Raikkonen, Webber and Grosjean.

The second flyers didn't create much change, as Hamilton improved further to secure another pole position for Mercedes AMG. Vettel takes second place, ahead of his teammate and both Lotus cars.