FERRARI were left feeling sick as a dog while Lewis Hamilton was almost denied his pole for Sunday’s German GP due to illness.
Hamilton climbed off his sick bed to romp to pole in his Mercedes while Ferrari duo Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc suffered a double retirement.
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The Brit complained of feeling unwell and Mercedes were even lining up Esteban Ocon to stand in for the world champion, who was given last night off from sponsor commitments so he could get an early night.
Hamilton said: “I wasn’t feeling good this morning. I have a sore throat, so we prepped just in case I would not be able to do the session.
“We were prepared to put the second driver in the car in the worst-case scenario. I got through good.”
But it is probably Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto who wakes up with a bigger headache this morning having seen Vettel booted out of qualifying without even having set a lap-time.
It means he will start today’s race in last place. And with this being the final German GP, it is more than likely he will ever win in F1 at his home track.
Vettel said: “I don’t know what happened. Something broke with the turbo and that was game over from there.
“Obviously it’s very bitter. I think the car is great and lost out on a big chance but hopefully we’ll have a big one coming again tomorrow.
“I think the car was good. We did some changes also that should have been great for this afternoon but it wasn’t meant to be.”
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Ferrari later revealed the cause of Vettel’s early retirement was due to the air supply to his engine — a similar fault that ruled him out of Q3 in Austria just three races ago.
And then lightning struck twice as Leclerc, who had looked strong all weekend, was forced to retire from Q3 with a separate issue, this time it was a fuel problem.
That means he starts in 10th place and he added: “I have no idea if it was the same issue as Sebastian, but mine was a fuel system problem.
“It is a shame but we will be trying to understand what happened and not to reproduce it.
“The car felt great today and all weekend so it’s a shame it ended like this.”
The double-retirement marks an astonishing 12 months for the Italian team, as they have been plagued by reliability and operational mistakes while Vettel has also been guilty of his own howlers.
It all comes after Ferrari gave strong signs that they could finally challenge Mercedes this season.
They had the quickest car after pre-season testing in Barcelona yet since then they have gone backwards.
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There was Leclerc’s engine failure that cost him a win in the Bahrain GP.
Then the team miscalculated his run in qualifying for the Monaco GP meaning he started outside the top 10.
Add in Vettel’s mistakes — his penalty in Canada and Ferrari’s embarrassing failed appeal — plus his amateur smash into Max Verstappen at Silverstone.
It all paints a rather bleak picture for the Italian team, who have not won the teams’ championship since 2008.
None of that is any concern, however, for pole sitter Hamilton, who comes into this race with a 100 point lead in the championship over Vettel.
After being quizzed about seeing Ferrari’s woes, he said he didn’t receive any enjoyment from it.
He said: “It makes no difference [what happens at Ferrari], you’re still focused on trying to do the best job you can.
“You see them out, and ultimately it’s difficult when you do all the practices and qualifying and something happens as soon as you get out.
“That’s definitely a horrible feeling, so definitely they will be feeling that. We’ve all been there, we’ve had that kind of thing.”
Meanwhile, Verstappen himself suffered a nervy moment as he too experienced a power loss but his team were able to fix the issue and he qualified in second place.
Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas will line up in third place alongside Pierre Gasly.
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