German GP Formula 1 Driver Quotes: Williams Valtteri Bottas To Challenge Nico Rosberg For Maximum Points [QUOTES]

Championship leader Nico Rosberg earned his fifth pole of the season at his home race, the German Grand Prix, while teammate Lewis Hamilton will start all the way back in 15th on the grid. A catastrophic brake failure caused Hamilton to lose control of his car at the Turn 13 hairpin during Qualifying session 1. Unfortunately, the Q1 crash spelled the end of Hamilton's Saturday efforts.

“It just takes you by complete surprise,” Lewis Hamilton described in an interview following the crash. “It happens so quickly. When you're driving, you have to 100 per cent confidence in the car and you never ever enter a corner thinking something is going to happen, so you hit the brake pedal and it's a real shock.”

“I can't believe it obviously, but things like this happen and, for whatever reason, are sent to try us,” Hamilton continued. “The guys worked really hard over the evening and were up really late last night. We had done such a great job with the set-up... it felt fantastic out there and I didn't even get to do five laps!”

“Obviously, Nico has basically got another gift, but we'll do what we can tomorrow,” Hamilton concluded. “We'll figure something out – there's still a decent amount of races to go...”

The biggest news ahead of the German GP is no doubt Lewis Hamilton's awful crash. Here are other driver's quotes ahead of the German GP:

“I still expect him to come through the field quickly, but I don't know, it's difficult to predict,” said Nico Rosberg. "I need to do my own race, I need to push anyways from the front. I need to go for it and try and pull a gap and then see where I am with strategy and everything."

“It's been going really, really well and, [at my] home race, to be on pole is fantastic,” Nico said. “Of course, I would have preferred if it was an open fight with Lewis, and I'm a little less happy as a result because Lewis didn't have a shot at it in the end. All in all, it's been a fantastic day, but there are no points for today and the important stuff is tomorrow. There's a long way to go, but it's a good start.”

“I feel really happy to be part of this team that is going in the right way,” Valtteri Bottas said. “Again a strong result for us as a team, so it's good to be part of this. Still we have to start really focusing on getting better and better with every race. There are no points for today, so we need to focus on tomorrow again and try to do the perfect job if we can and get the maximum points available.”

“I was struggling to put the lap together,” Felipe Massa said. “There was lots of movement from the tyres so I was unable to drive a perfect lap. The car wasn't 100 per cent perfect and Valtteri did a really good lap, but I am quite happy with the result. For sure the race will be completely different and the feel of the car will be completely different, so I will try to do a good job tomorrow.”

“I think it will be a big challenge for everybody,” Massa said, regarding the track conditions at Hockenheim on Sunday. “We are running super soft and soft, so it won't be easy to keep the tyres in a good shape and the consistency won't be there every lap. Maybe we will see more stops than other races, but definitely having a cooler race will help a bit especially for our cars.”

“We had an update on the car but it didn't bring us as much as it was supposed to," said Sebastian Vettel on his Red Bull package. "It was generally better than this morning so I was fairly happy, on the last run we just didn't seem to be able to go with the track. I didn't get a smooth lap and didn't improve.”

“To be honest I think Williams didn't look as competitive yesterday so they made a big step today which was a bit of a surprise," said Vettel on Williams F1's pace. "But then again in the last couple of races they have been very strong so I think they will be very strong as well tomorrow. Generally on race pace we look a little bit better than maybe in raw qualifying pace.”

“Throughout the qualifying session I was not too comfortable, I was struggling a little bit and I knew I had to pull something out in Q3,” said Daniel Ricciardo. “We tweaked the wing a little bit and tried a bit with tyre pressures and it just gave me a bit of confidence to get a few more tenths out of it. So I was pretty happy with the lap. Unfortunately we are not close enough to the front row but I was pretty happy in the end with what I did so I'll just try to look forward to the race now.”

“They were really quick today on one lap but fingers crossed their long run pace is less competitive," remarked Ricciardo on Williams' pace. "They've consistently showed really good pace now in the last few races. But that's Formula One, it's competitive and they seem to be pushing the rest of us at the moment. Besides Mercedes they're the ones who are showing that they want that next opportunity so we've got to try and stay on top of it and keep doing what we're doing.”

“We have a lot of tyre degradation, especially at the rear, because we spin the tyres with a lack of downforce, and when it is hot, with high track temperatures, this effect is a little bit bigger,” Fernando Alonso ruminated. Things are not going well at Ferrari at all. “It is a small thing for the race but, in qualifying, with new tyres, I think we mask these problems with the grip of the tyres. I expect tomorrow to be tougher than the performance we showed today.

“It was a good lap, we got everything out of the car in terms of set-up and strategy in the qualifying,” said Kevin Magnussen on the McLaren set-up and upgrades. “So a really good job from the guys in my garage for managing that so I'm pretty happy.

“Today it felt very good," Magnussen emphasized. "I really was able to push and really drive it like a go-kart. It felt very, very good. It has felt good before, but today it just felt very good. Obviously I think the new bits on the car have worked and we got the most out of it. I'm very happy with the way the car feels to keep going in this direction.”