Nick Heidfeld's hopes of leading the German charge into his home grand prix evaporated with a mistake at the hairpin on a last-gasp effort to gain a place in the top ten shoot-out of qualifying at Hockenheim.
The
BMW Sauber driver found himself in the drop zone with six minutes remaining after the team made its customary late appearance, but was unable to save himself when he dropped back into the bottom five after only finding enough time to claw his way to tenth. Running off line at the hairpin then scuppered any hope he might have had of improving.
In a disappointing session for the home nation,
Timo Glock and
Nico Rosberg both joined Heidfeld among those missing out, the
Toyota driver pushed back to eleventh by
David Coulthard's late improvement to eighth and Rosberg failing to save himself on his final attempt having been demoted by
Robert Kubica with five minutes remaining.
Jenson Button and
Sebastien Bourdais - who made a bigger mistake at the hairpin than Heidfeld - completed the list.
Lewis Hamilton restored
McLaren to top spot, setting up a likely battle for pole with second-placed
Felipe Massa, while
Heikki Kovalainen ventured out late on with another set of the softer tyres as he attempted to move up from fourth. The Finn survived a wild moment at the final corner to claim third....
Fernando Alonso and
Kimi Raikkonen rounded out the top five, while Kubica, Trulli, Coulthard,
Sebastian Vettel and
Mark Webber complete the qualifiers for the top ten shoot-out.
