How the German GP qualifying hour unfolded

Summary

Sebastian Vettel starts on pole after Lewis Hamilton breaks down at end of Q1
P2 Valtteri Bottas, P3 Kimi Raikkonen, P14 Hamilton
Out in Q1: Ocon, Gasly, Hartley, Stroll, Vandoorne
Out in Q2: Alonso, Sirotkin, Ericsson, Hamilton, Ricciardo
Sebastian Vettel leads title race by eight points from Hamilton
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Live Reporting

Michael Emons

'Tight as ever in the midfield'published at 10:47 British Summer Time 21 July 2018
... with a few more from Brendon Hartley and the pair of Antonio Giovinazzi and Nicholas Latifi, who had the chance to step in in FP1.
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'We will have to be more than perfect'published at 10:45 British Summer Time 21 July 2018
Not forgetting Kevin Magnussen, Sergio Perez, Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc...
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'We had a positive day'published at 10:44 British Summer Time 21 July 2018
Here were the social media reactions from Max Verstappen, Nico Hulkenberg and Valtteri Bottas.
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'Very close'published at 10:41 British Summer Time 21 July 2018
Andrew Benson
BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer
The competition between Mercedes and Ferrari has been so close this year, that observers are looking for every tiny hint as to how a particular weekend might go.
In Hockenheim on Friday, it appeared to be advantage Mercedes, with Lewis Hamilton a decent margin ahead of Sebastian Vettel despite not managing a perfect lap. But dig a little deeper, and it would be easy to think actually Ferrari are ahead.
Vettel, too, was not happy with his fastest lap, and he was a couple of tenths quicker than Hamilton on the long runs on both the ultra-soft and medium tyres. Add in that, until recently, Ferrari have tended to look less competitive on Friday than reality, and this weekend could be swinging their way. Vettel, Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas all agreed that it was, as ever, “very close”.
Image source, Getty Images
Second session timespublished at 10:41 British Summer Time 21 July 2018
Max Verstappen ensured that Red Bull would be top of both sessions, but it was a session to forget for McLaren, Williams and Toro Rosso.
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First session timespublished at 10:37 British Summer Time 21 July 2018
This is what happened yesterday morning, with Daniel Ricciardo leading the way. Stoffel Vandoorne was slowest, a position he would hold all day.
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Hello againpublished at 10:33 British Summer Time 21 July 2018
Morning. Thanks for joining us for the third practice session and then qualifying for the German Grand Prix. Michael Emons here and I will be guiding you through all the action today.
Third practice starts at 11:00 BST with qualifying at 14:00 BST. As always, we will have live commentary with our 5 live team.
Set up nicelypublished at 10:29 British Summer Time 21 July 2018
Fastest in practice session one and fastest in practice session two. Yesterday was a great day for Red Bull, well on the track at least.
Grid penalties mean Daniel Ricciardo, quickest yesterday morning, will start at the back, but Max Verstappen, quickest yesterday afternoon, is very much in contention to upset Ferrari and Mercedes and take pole position today.
Mercedes were their usual competitive selves yesterday, while Ferrari produced some good times in the opening session without going on the fastest tyres. All set up nicely then for a riveting day of action.
Image source, Getty Images