Fernando Alonso scored his second pole position in a row in a wet final qualifying session at Hockenheim. The Spaniard will share the front row with Sebasian Vettel who pipped his team-mate Mark Webber on the final tour. Michael Schumacher continued his strong run of form to qualify alongside Webber. Hulkenberg made it a strong day for the German drivers with fifth while Maldonado once again showed his pace, in front of the McLaren driver who will share the fourth row with Paul di Resta and Kimi Raikkonen filling the final two top ten slots.

The Ferrari looked strong in the hands of Fernando Alonso in the final practice session and that proved to be the case although Vettel stands a good chance of breaking his July and German Grand Prix duck with victory tomorrow.

The cars filed out of the pits at the start of Q2 shod with intermediate tyres as the rain fell, with the first timed lap being the one that would count for the 17 drivers dived into the melting pot. The rain fell steadily, avoiding the deluge that fell on Friday at Hockenheim that was reminiscent of Silverstone qualifying, when Charlie Whiting stopped the session for over an hour. In the end Nico Rosberg, Felipe Massa and Romain Grosjean could not make the intermediate tyres work and dropped out, paying the price for going out late, although Michael Schumacher was in fact last out and posted the second fastest time of the second session. The rain masters of Lewis Hamilton, Schumacher, Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button were in the top five as the rain fell.

Those who thought they were safe in Q1 had to re-evaluate towards the end of the session as the track rubbered in. Schumacher in the Mercedes left it until the last second to scrape through to Q2 by 0.055s as the HRT’S, Marussia’s, Caterhams and Jean-Eric Vergne in the Toro Rosso were knocked out at the first hurdle.

Mark Webber, Romain Grosjean and Nico Rosberg will all take five place grid penalties after gearbox changes.