Hamilton’s chances, it will come as no surprise to learn in a season dominated
by tyre talk, will be largely down to how well Mercedes can manage their
rubber.
Red Bull have appeared to have a slight edge in long runs at the Nurburgring –
and Vettel will be hugely motivated to claim victory on home soil for the
first time – but Mercedes have come on hugely since the Spanish Grand Prix
in May.
To what extent their controversial ‘private’ tyre test for Pirelli immediately
following that race helped them to do so is a moot point.
Ferrari could yet surprise. The Italian outfit opted to sacrifice any chance
of pole yesterday in favour of starting the race on the medium tyres. They
had their eye on the bigger picture. Expect Fernando Alonso to rise from
eighth and challenge the leaders this afternoon.
Do not expect events to be overshadowed by exploding tyres. After all the talk
last week of safety and potential driver boycotts, there has been not a
sniff of a Pirelli failure. Instead the stage is set fair for a potentially
pivotal race in the championship.
“Not in my wildest dreams when I joined Mercedes did I expect to win the
championship in the first year – definitely not,” Hamilton said last week.
“I don’t really know what is realistic now.”
We may be about to find out. British sporting attention will understandably be
focused on Wimbledon, but 400 miles from SW19, in a little corner of North
Rhine-Westphalia, Hamilton will be hoping to kick-start a bid for his own
slice of history.
Positions after qualifying:
1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1min 29.398secs
2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1:29.501
3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:29.608
4 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus F1 Team 1:29.892
5 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus F1 Team 1:29.959
6 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:30.528
7 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:31.126
8 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:31.209
9 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren No Time
10 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Sauber-Ferrari No Time
11 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:30.326
12 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:30.697
13 Sergio Perez (Mex) McLaren 1:30.933
14 Esteban Gutierrez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 1:31.010
15 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:31.010
16 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:31.104
17 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Williams 1:31.693
18 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:31.707
19 Charles Pic (Fra) Caterham 1:32.937
20 Jules Bianchi (Fra) Marussia 1:33.063
21 Giedo van der Garde (Ned) Caterham 1:33.734
22 Max Chilton (Gbr) Marussia 1:34.098