Tom Clarkson
BBC Radio 5 live commentator

"It's very quiet which is going to cause potential problems later, as it's a very narrow track. Not good, when all you want to do is nail one fast track."

It's a quiet start to qualifying as the Manors trade places on the track.

Oh, wait. There's a Haas out now too. It's Romain Grosjean.

Image source, Getty Images

Mick Schumacher watched yesterday's practice down in the Mercedes garage but he's moved along to Ferrari for qualifying.

The first part of qualifying is under way!

Pascal Wehrlein is the first to head out onto the circuit in his Manor.

Image source, Getty Images

Drivers are in their cars as they wait for Q1 to begin. 

One minute to go.

BBC Radio 5 live sports extra

Commentary on qualifying has just started on 5 live sports extra. You can listen via the live coverage tab on this page.

Five minutes to go until qualifying gets under way. It's cloudy above Hockenheim, but chances of rain are slim. That, mercifully, means we won't be in for the hour-long Q1 chaos we had at Hungary last-time out.

Romain Grosjean will drop five places from where he qualifies today after being handed a five-place grid penalty after a change of gearbox during final practice this morning.

Tom Wong: Keyword is "escapes", ie. Should have been. Personally, think it should have been a reprimand and not penalty for consistency.  

Bobba Fett: So why did Kyvat get reprimand last year and not Lewis this? Not exactly consistent stewarding.

This morning we asked whether the halo head protection system should have been introduced in 2017, and the result is quite interesting.

The majority of you said no, it should not be introduced but it wasn't a large majority - 54% saying no.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer at Hockenheim

Image source, Getty Images

Nico Rosberg edged Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton by just 0.057 seconds in final practice, while Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was only 0.099secs off the pace as tiny margins separated the top teams.

Mercedes had looked totally dominant on Friday but Red Bull and Ferrari appeared much closer on Saturday morning.

With Ricciardo within 0.1secs of the silver cars, Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen was only 0.164secs off the pace in fourth.

The Finn's team-mate Sebastian Vettel was fifth fastest, ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who was 0.345secs slower than Ricciardo.

Child of chaos: Stewards starting to realise how silly they are being, punishing the wrong people + radio bans, this decision lets us have a race.  

ACM Ian: Good decision on Hamilton. It is practice, not a race. Not even qualifying.  

Paul Stewart: All the F1 Conspiracy theorists can breathe a sigh of relief. Not sure how Lewis got away with that though.

Ian Long: Right decision - practice error. Punish the team for carelessness. In a race punish the driver.

Image source, Getty Images

At the German Grand Prix in 1970, there were a record number of lead changes at Hockenheim with 13. 

Doubt we will see anything close to that tomorrow, but you never know.

Kayleigh: Wrong decision. Rosberg was penalised for the teams error at Silverstone.