Vettel knocked out in Q1 while Leclerc didn't post Q3 lap as both suffer Ferrari failures; watch Sunday's German GP at 2.10pm on Sky F1
Sunday 28 July 2019 08:14, UK
Mercedes "need" Ferrari to resolve their issues for a championship battle, according to team boss Toto Wolff.
Mercedes marked their 200th race in style as Hamilton clinched a record-extending 87th career pole while both Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc were sidelined by reliability failures.
The five-times world champion aced Hockenheim for his fourth pole of the campaign - and while Max Verstappen remained on his tail, the challenge from Ferrari melted away.
Vettel will start at the back of the grid after a problem with the air flow to the car's turbo while Leclerc failed to make it out of the pits in the final top 10 shootout due to a fuel system issue.
"It's a shame for Ferrari, and a shame for Sebastian at his home Grand Prix as we need him here for the crowd," Wolff told Sky F1.
"We need them for a strong championship, but for us I'm happy. The session started awfully, and we didn't understand why we were lacking pace, but slowly it came towards us."
Ferrari are still to win a race this season and they trail Mercedes by 164 points in the Constructors' Championship.
Hamilton added: "It's such a shame. They do all that in practice and then you get to qualifying and ones out in Q1. I was definitely looking forward to that battle but it wasn't meant to be."
The Sky F1 pundits on Ferrari
Martin Brundle
"I feel slightly cheated with that. I wanted to see where the Ferrari would end up and they finished 10th and 20th."
Paul Di Resta
"I think Ferrari would have dominated qualifying, certainly with Charles."
"Ferrari will do something very different on strategy. I think Charles needs to be the one - he was very aggressive in Silverstone and I think he'll be putting on a challenge. He would have been on pole I think by three or four tenths today. They need to be super aggressive."
Watch the German GP live only on Sky Sports this weekend. Find out more here to watch the 2019 season live
