Silverstone star Lewis Hamilton has taken pole position for this weekend's German Grand Prix, as Formula 1 World Championship rival Kimi Raikkonen found himself all out-of-sorts at Hockenheim – and down on the third row of the grid.
Both McLaren-Mercedes' had looked extremely quick throughout free practice, with rivals Ferrari – and Raikkonen in particular – appearing to be on the back foot, whilst half of the 2008 field had incredibly never even competed around the Baden-Württemberg circuit in an F1 car prior to this weekend.
Home hero Nico Rosberg was the first man to take to the track in Q1, with rain threatening and a strong tail wind in turn one – which would send Force India's Giancarlo Fisichella flying off-piste only minutes into the session.
Whilst defending F1 World Champion Raikkonen made the early running, Scuderia Toro Rosso ace Sebastian Vettel was only two tenths adrift, before Rosberg and then Mark Webber leapt to the top of the timing screens.
Raikkonen then took a further half second off his previous best to grab the top spot back again – both the Finn and team-mate Felipe Massa heading out early while McLaren-Mercedes played a game of 'chicken' in the pits, as the Ferrari duo and Webber traded fastest times between them.
Heikki Kovalainen was the first of the two Silver Arrows to show his hand, the FP3 pace-setter ending up just two tenths shy of Massa following only his first run. Hamilton locked up and missed the apex of the hairpin completely during his own opening effort, but was still quickest of all – blitzing the final sector – as he looked to replicate his Friday form, when he had proven to be three-quarters of a second out of reach of
any of his rivals.
With ten minutes remaining, Adrian Sutil and the two Renaults and BMWs were in the danger zone, before Fernando Alonso – who had been fastest of everyone during the wet part of FP3, despite confessing to not being entirely happy with his R28 – popped up into sixth spot.
Just seconds later, Nelsinho Piquet went 13th-fastest and Robert Kubica – who had lost a large portion of the morning free practice session when the driveshaft broke on his BMW – leapt up the order into fifth, albeit eight tenths away from the ultimate pace, pushing Piquet back into the drop area once more.
A hard-charging Sutil hauled himself up into an impressive twelfth, with countryman Vettel going fifth and David Coulthard – who had professed himself in confident mood ahead of the session – languishing down in 17th place with six minutes left to run.
