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Nico Rosberg took pole position for Sunday's German Grand Prix after his teammate and championship rival Lewis Hamilton encountered a mechanical problem in the opening leg of qualifying, leaving him 16th on the grid.The British driver was aiming to put the disappointment of the previous few qualifying sessions behind until a front right brake failure meant that he went straight into the barriers at Sachs Hairpin, bringing out the red flags and signalling the end of his session.Meanwhile, Williams, which looked unusually slow on Friday, emerged as the second fastest team on Saturday afternoon with Valtteri Bottas notching the second fastest time of the day, a lap-time that was just two tenths slower than Nico Rosberg's benchmark of 1:16.540. Felipe Massa couldn't replicate his teammate's stellar performance, but nevertheless locked third position on the grid.Another star of the day was McLaren's Kevin Magnussen who posted a stonking lap of 1:17.214 to line up fourth on the grid, equalling his career best starting position.Behind the Danish driver came the Red Bull pair of Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel, with the Australian again having the upper hand over his teammate.Further back, it was a disappointing afternoon for Ferrari with Fernando Alonso only seventh fastest and Kimi Raikkonen not even making into Q3.Another poor performance came from Jenson Button who was no match for his teammate at Hockenheim. He joined fellow world champions Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton, Sauber's Esteban Gutierrez, the second Toro Rosso driven by Jean Eric Vergne as well as Lotus' Romain Grosjean in the list of drivers who were relegated in Q2.Adrian Sutil was the first driver to be eliminated in Q1, with the German failing to put on an impressive at his home race despite some promising outings in the practice sessions. Jules Bianchi was 18th quickest and ahead of Lotus' Pastor Maldonado, teammate Max Chilton and Caterham's Kamui Kobayashi. Marcus Ericsson couldn't complete a single lap in qualifying and will race at the discretion of stewards.
