German Grand Prix 2013: Lewis Hamilton claims pole position at the Nurburgring Hamilton's chances, it will come as no surprise to learn in a season dominated by tyre talk, will be largely down to how well Mercedes can manage their rubber. Red Bull have appeared to have a slight edge in long runs at the Nurburgring - and Vettel will be hugely motivated to claim victory on home soil for the first time - but Mercedes have come on hugely since the Spanish Grand Prix in May. To what extent their controversial "private" tyre test for Pirelli immediately following that race helped them to do so is a moot point. Ferrari could yet surprise. The Italian outfit opted to sacrifice any chance of pole yesterday in favour of starting the race on the medium tyres. They had their eye on the bigger picture. Expect Fernando Alonso to rise from eighth and challenge the leaders this afternoon. Do not expect events to be overshadowed by exploding tyres. After all the talk last week of safety and potential driver boycotts, there has been not a sniff of a Pirelli failure. Instead the stage is set fair for a potentially pivotal race in the championship. "Not in my wildest dreams when I joined Mercedes did I expect to win the championship in the first year - definitely not," Hamilton said last week. I don't really know what is realistic now. We may be about to find out. British sporting attention will understandably be focused on Wimbledon, but 400 miles from SW19, in a little corner of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamilton will be hoping to kick-start a bid for his own slice of history. Positions after qualifying: 1 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes GP 1min 29.398secs 2 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Red Bull 1:29.501 3 Mark Webber (Aus) Red Bull 1:29.608 4 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Lotus F1 Team 1:29.892 5 Romain Grosjean (Fra) Lotus F1 Team 1:29.959 6 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:30.528 7 Felipe Massa (Bra) Ferrari 1:31.126 8 Fernando Alonso (Spa) Ferrari 1:31.209 9 Jenson Button (Gbr) McLaren No Time 10 Nico Hulkenberg (Ger) Sauber-Ferrari No Time 11 Nico Rosberg (Ger) Mercedes GP 1:30.326 12 Paul di Resta (Gbr) Force India 1:30.697 13 Sergio Perez (Mex) McLaren 1:30.933 14 Esteban Gutierrez (Mex) Sauber-Ferrari 1:31.010 15 Adrian Sutil (Ger) Force India 1:31.010 16 Jean-Eric Vergne (Fra) Scuderia Toro Rosso 1:31.104 17 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Williams 1:31.693 18 Pastor Maldonado (Ven) Williams 1:31.707 19 Charles Pic (Fra) Caterham 1:32.937 20 Jules Bianchi (Fra) Marussia 1:33.063 21 Giedo van der Garde (Ned) Caterham 1:33.734 22 Max Chilton (Gbr) Marussia 1:34.098