Vettel on German GP pole, Hamilton 14th after car failure

Sebastian Vettel will start the German Grand Prix from pole position after topping qualifying at Hockenheim for Ferrari on Saturday as title rival Lewis Hamilton saw his session come to an early end due to a failure on his car.

With Hamilton resigned to P14 on the grid after a hydraulic issue sidelined him at the end of Q1, Vettel was able to seize the advantage and charge to pole position at his home grand prix for the second time in his career.

Vettel took provisional pole with his first run in Q1, only for Hamilton's Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas, to edge one-tenth of a second clear with his final lap, putting the pressure on the drivers' championship leader.

But Vettel managed to dig deep on his final lap, turning in a time of 1m11.212s to beat Bottas by 0.204 seconds, sparking celebrations in the home crowd at Hockenheim.

Bottas was left to settle for second, and is set to lead Mercedes' charge in the race following Hamilton's setback. After running wide over the kerbs at Turn 1 and hitting the ground hard, Hamilton began to slow towards the end of Q1, reporting that he could not change gear.

Mercedes told Hamilton to stop the car, informing him of a loss of hydraulic pressure, only for the Briton to ask if he could trundle back to the pits. The team refused, telling Hamilton he had to park his car up for fear of causing damage to the power unit. The dejected four-time world champion jumping out of his car and parking up at Turn 10. He will start P14 on Sunday, barring any possible penalties if power unit changes are required.

Kimi Raikkonen struggled in his final Q3 runs, leaving him third on the grid for Ferrari ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who finished six-tenths of a second off the pace in fourth.

Taking advantage of the issue for Hamilton, Haas was able to lock out the third row of the grid with Kevin Magnussen in fifth and Romain Grosjean sixth. Renault drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr. followed in seventh and eighth, with Charles Leclerc reaching Q3 for Sauber in P9. Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10 for Force India.

Fernando Alonso finished more than half a second off a place in Q3 as he qualified 11th for McLaren, marking his best Saturday result since Monaco. Williams also enjoyed an upturn in fortunes as Sergey Sirotkin charged to P12, putting the team's updates for Hockenheim to good use, finishing ahead of Marcus Ericsson in the second Sauber.

Red Bull opted not to take part in Q2 with Daniel Ricciardo due to the Australian's pending penalty that means he will start last on Sunday, leaving him 15th in the final classification.

Force India's Esteban Ocon was edged out of qualifying by just 0.012 seconds at the end of the opening session, leaving him 16th on the grid. Toro Rosso drivers Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley followed in 17th and 18th, separated by three-tenths of a second, while Lance Stroll wound up 19th for Williams.

Stoffel Vandoorne's rotten qualifying form continued as he propped up the timesheets in 20th, marking his fourth consecutive Q1 exit as he lapped more than 0.7 seconds slower than McLaren teammate Alonso.

The German Grand Prix gets underway at Hockenheim at 1510 local time (1410 BST) on Sunday.