Nico Rosberg thrills German GP fans by pipping Lewis Hamilton to pole

Hamilton was on target to better Rosberg's time in his final run but locked up. He will be second on the grid ahead of the Red Bull pair of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen, and then the Ferrari duo of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel.

It was Rosberg's 27th pole and was particularly impressive because he had only one lap to nail it after aborting an earlier effort. Rosberg had also been quicker in the morning's final practice run.

In Q1, a storming late lap from Jolyon Palmer saw him edge out Renault team-mate Kevin Magnussen and get through to the next stage. But he dropped out in Q2, along with the McLaren pair Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button.

Earlier, Hamilton escaped an automatic 10-place grid penalty after stewards decided not to punish the championship leader for an unsafe release in final practice.

The Mercedes driver had faced an investgation after Haas driver Romain Grosjean was forced to stop in the pit lane to avoid the Briton pulling out of his garage in front of him. After being summoned to the stewards, Mercedes were fined €10,000 for an unsafe release, but Hamilton avoided a reprimand. Hamilton already has two reprimands to his name this season, and a third would see him issued with an automatic 10-place grid demotion.

Rosberg, who was forced to abandon his first timed run in the final phase of qualifying with a minor electronic glitch, said: "It was a great lap with just the one lap that I had. It was really satisfying."

Hamilton, looking downcast, added: "It has been a good weekend with no problems. I had the pace today, but I just didn't finish it off on the last lap."

Source: The Guardian.com