Nico Rosberg claimed pole position for the German Grand Prix in Saturday’s scorching qualifying session at Hockenheim after a heavy crash for Mercedes team-mate and championship rival Lewis Hamilton. Williams duo Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa posed the biggest threat.

Rosberg, who had set the pace in the morning’s final practice session, was given a clear run to the top spot when Hamilton suffered a right-front brake failure in Q1 and slid uncontrollably into the Turn 13 barriers.

Despite making it through to the second phase, Hamilton could take no further part in the day’s action after stepping out of a heavily damaged car.

Rosberg went on to record a 1:16.540 in the final shootout phase, confirming that the Silver Arrows package is still the strongest in Formula 1 without front-and-rear-interconnected suspension (FRIC) attached.

Bottas and Massa emerged as the best of the rest, marking another positive day for the Williams team.

Kevin Magnussen impressed en route to fourth, ahead of Red Bull duo Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel.

Fernando Alonso took eighth for Ferrari, with Toro Rosso rookie Daniil Kvyat and the Force Indias of Nico Hülkenberg and Sergio Pérez completing the top 10 positions.

Aside from Hamilton, Jenson Button and Kimi Räikkönen were the biggest names to fall in Q2, the pair due to share the sixth row of the grid on Sunday afternoon.

The remaining Toro Rosso of Jean-Éric Vergne, Sauber’s Esteban Gutiérrez and Lotus driver Romain Grosjean were the others to drop out at the second stage.

Hamilton has the slender consolation of moving one place further up the grid, with Gutiérrez taking a three-place drop for his incident with Pastor Maldonado at Silverstone.

Adrian Sutil appeared to suffer from his lack of track time in final practice en route to a Q1 exit. He was joined on the sidelines by Maldonado’s Lotus plus the Marussia and Caterham pairings.

Jules Bianchi managed to get the better of Maldonado for 18th, while Max Chilton split Kamui Kobayashi and Marcus Ericsson after the latter failed to complete a lap amid technical issues.