German F1 GP qualifying: Daniel Ricciardo to start third behind Rosberg, Hamilton

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This was published 7 years ago

German F1 GP qualifying: Daniel Ricciardo to start third behind Rosberg, Hamilton

By Andrew Tate
Updated

Daniel Ricciardo has again proven the best of the rest in the Formula One field and will start Sunday's German Grand Prix behind the the Mercedes of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.

Rosberg recovered from what Mercedes called an 'electronic' problem in the final qualifying session when he was forced to abort his first attempt as his throttle cut out.

On top: Nico Rosberg in action in Hockenheim, Germany.

On top: Nico Rosberg in action in Hockenheim, Germany.Credit: Getty Images

With only one opportunity, Rosberg's flying lap of one minute 14.363 seconds edged out Hamilton for pole by one tenth of a second.

Ricciardo's first flying lap of 1:14.726, put him ahead of teammate Max Verstappen, who had a second go at it and could still not beat the Australian's first time.

However, Ricciardo did take five laps to set a time in Qualifying Two, meaning he'll start the race on tyres that are two laps older than most of the drivers he is a competing against.

"I think we got pretty close to be honest," Ricciardo said of his competitiveness to the championship leading Mercedes drivers.

"Yeah my first lap in Q3 was pretty good and I probably knew there probably wasn't that much more on the table in the second run and in the end [I had] a couple of mistakes in that run so there was maybe a tenth or so in it with a perfect lap, but not enough to challenge for pole.

"You know we are close enough, I said yesterday if we could be within half a second that's not a bad day during qualifying so hopefully that means something tomorrow and what I understand [is] we might have different tyres available for us for the race so that hopefully makes it interesting."

The Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel will start on the third row.

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For his part, Rosberg was thrilled with claiming pole in his home Grand Prix at Hockenheim, his 27th career pole and fifth of the season.

"It was a great feeling, a great lap," he said.

"Not only was it just one lap that I had but I also had extra fuel to make sure that I still had another shot if something happens, so I had fuel for three laps so that was more time in the bag there, so I was really satisfied with that one."

Hamilton leads the drivers championship by six points from Rosberg who is on 186 points, with Ricciardo in third on 115 and Kimi Raikkonen one point behind him.

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