Kimi Qualifies Fifth, Vettel is Sixth at the Hockenheim German Grand Prix

Image Credit Ferrari Media

Hockenheim, 30 July – There will be an all-red third row on the grid for the German Grand Prix. Come the end of today’s qualifying at Hockenheim, Kimi Raikkonen set the fifth fastest time of 1.15.142, with Sebastian Vettel right behind him in sixth in 1.15.315. Nico Rosberg will start from pole, having set the fastest lap of 1.14.363 in his Mercedes.

With the final free practice session wrapped up at the Hockenheimring, preparations can now be regarded as complete for qualifying to decide the grid for the German Grand Prix. Just two tenths of a second separate the lap times of Kimi Raikkonen (1.15.902) and Sebastian Vettel (1.16.104), fourth and fifth fastest respectively. Kimi’s lap was less than two tenths slower than the fastest time set by Nico Rosberg in 1.15.738, with his Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton second in 1.15.795. The Ferrari duo did an out-in lap on the Medium tyres, before running two sets of Supersofts, the quickest tyre Pirelli has brought to Germany

Image Credit Ferrari Media​


 

Kimi Raikkonen: ”Our car was behaving pretty nicely today and I was happy with the handling. My last try in Q3 was a bit more tricky, I was struggling a little bit with the feeling from the tires, but apart from that we had no massive issues. I don’t have much to complain from the behavior of the car, we are just lacking speed overall. We need to put more downforce in the car to go faster. This result is disappointing, finishing fifth and sixth it’s not ideal, but this is what it is right now, and we keep working to improve. Usually the race is our stronger side, but every circuit is different. Tomorrow it’s a new day, we’ll do our own race, you never know what is going to happen. We need to make a good getaway from the start and hopefully take the fight to the guys in front, and then do our best.”

Image Credit Ferrari Media​


 

Sebastian Vettel: ”I am not happy with 6th position, it was a difficult session. In the moment I tried to do the best, we didn’t get everything together. Somehow we lost a bit and now we need to understand what happened this afternoon. I was reasonaby happy with my lap, but it wasn’t quick enough, there was a bit of time we lost here and there, overall we struggled a bit to extract the pace from the car. The balance didn’t come together in qualifying, it was better this morning and yesterday. We know the car can be quicker, but we didn’t manage to get it in the right window, that’s our job and we didn’t succeed. I’m sure that tomorrow we’ll be competitive, but again we start a little bit from the back foot, so it will be tough because here it’s not easy to overtake. I think we don’t have to hide, in terms of race pace we are fast, then it should be an interesting race.”
 

... notes from STP