HOCKENHEIM, Germany -- Despite dealing Lewis Hamilton a significant blow in qualifying for the German Grand Prix, Sebastian Vettel is sympathetic toward his championship rival for the car issue he encountered.
Vettel romped to pole in front of a jubilant home crowd at the circuit just down the road from where he grew up. He will start from the front while Hamilton is likely to start 14th after suffering a hydraulics leak in Q1 which occurred after he ran wide at Turn 1 and went across the kerbs.
It means Vettel, who will lined up alongside Hamilton's teammate Valtteri Bottas, looks likely to leave Germany having extended his eight-point lead over the reigning champion, but he was in little mood to celebrate his rival's misfortune afterward.
"Well obviously we saw but I don't know what exactly happened," Vettel said. "I think it doesn't really matter, we'll see what happens tomorrow. Obviously you look after yourself and for me it was a good session. We prepared the car well and everything went smoothly. Obviously you always try to push the limits so ..."
"You don't wish anything bad, something like a technical issue which he had, to happen to anyone. So it was a shame to see him go out, and I mean it.
"But you look after yourself and we will try to do the race tomorrow which is the most important part of the weekend."
Vettel admitted his Saturday lap, and the huge roar that accompanied the conclusion of his pole position lap, ranked highly in the memories of his storied career so far.
"I think today is definitely one of the best moments. I have a bit of a mixed relationship with this track, it seems that sometimes we were really close in the past then for some reason it didn't come together.
"But so far this weekend has been great and the car has behaved well. I think we improved it for today. Tomorrow we need to be sharp, I don't know what the weather's going to be like, anything can happen. But for now that doesn't matter, just happy.
"It's great to get the lap together here and obviously it means a lot with the support that I get and we get as a team, with so many passionate German Tifosi, I think is quite nice. That's what counts and what I feel now. I think I have done decent laps and bad laps. This is one of the better ones but I'm not a fan of saying 'This is the best I've ever done.' I hope the best I ever do is yet to come."
Vettel's only German Grand Prix win came at the Nurburgring in 2013. He claimed pole at Hockenheim in 2010 but was unable to win the race, something he hopes to rectify.