F1 Paddock Notebook - German GP Saturday

Recapping all of the additional news, notes and statistics from Hockenheim on Saturday, Crash.net F1 Editor Luke Smith brings you his paddock notebook.

- Sebastian Vettel charged to the 55th pole position of his Formula 1 career on Saturday in qualifying for the German Grand Prix. It marked his fifth pole position of the season - one more than Lewis Hamilton - and was his second at Hockenheim, his first coming in 2010.

- Vettel heads into Sunday's race aiming to win his home grand prix for just the second time, and take a maiden victory at Hockenheim. Vettel won the race at the Nurburgring in 2013 with Red Bull.

- Q3 was the first session of the race weekend Vettel had led, with Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen and Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas topping Q1 and Q2 respectively. Bottas managed to qualify second, two-tenths of a second behind Vettel.

- Bottas led Mercedes' charge after teammate Lewis Hamilton suffered a hydraulic failure at the end of Q1. While Hamilton's lap was enough to secure a place in Q2, he will start Sunday's race 14th. He is not currently due to take any penalties, with Mercedes reporting his gearbox and power unit were not damaged.

- Hamilton doubts he will be able to fight his way back up the order with the same kind of ease that he did at Silverstone, when contact left him as low as P18 on the first lap: "I have no idea what I can or can't do tomorrow. I definitely don't expect to be where I was in the last race. But it could go one way or the other."

- Max Verstappen finished fourth for Red Bull, but cited a lack of horsepower as preventing him from being able to fight with the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers at the front. Red Bull will split with existing engine partner Renault at the end of the season.

- Verstappen was the only Red Bull driver to reach Q3 as the team opted not to run Daniel Ricciardo in Q2, with a grid penalty meaning the Australian would start last on Sunday regardless of where he qualified.

- Ricciardo and Hamilton's setbacks meant Haas was able to score its best F1 qualifying result, locking out the third row of the grid. Kevin Magnussen finished fifth, four-tenths of a second clear of teammate Romain Grosjean in P6.

- They were followed by the Renault pair of Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr. Hulkenberg is running with a new-spec front wing this weekend, while Sainz is using the old-spec one. Sainz said he feels Renault is closer to Haas in Germany than it has been in recent weekends.

- Fernando Alonso managed to score his best qualifying result since Monaco, taking P11, but was four-tenths of a second shy of a Q3 berth. Teammate Stoffel Vandoorne dropped out in Q1 for the fourth race in a row as his ongoing car struggles continued.

- Charles Leclerc made his way into Q3 once again, with teammate Marcus Ericsson qualifying 13th. Ericsson caused the only red flag of qualifying after pulling gravel onto the track.