The high cost of attending races and reduced engine noise has been put forward for the fall in spectator numbers at venues such as the Hockenheimring, said Sebastian Vettel: “It’s clear nowadays, let’s say the last couple of years haven’t been that popular. There’s been a lot of negative in the press and obviously people, fans, follow that as well and that doesn’t help.

Maybe but the racing is as good as it ever was. Nico Rosberg pipped his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton to pole position this afternoon at the German Grand Prix in a dramatic qualifying session. The result marks the 300th and 301st Formula One front row grid slots for Mercedes-Benz Power. Both drivers completed a single run in Q1 (Soft) and Q2 (Supersoft), with Rosberg completing one run and Hamilton two in Q3 (Supersoft).

Nico Rosberg: “That was a difficult qualifying for me! I had an electronic problem with my throttle on my first quick run in Q3, so I had to abort. That meant I had a bit more fuel on my final run. I did a pretty good lap but I wasn’t sure if that was enough.”

Lewis Hamilton: “There was nothing particularly wrong today. My final lap just didn’t work out. It was pretty close out there and sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don’t. The car was feeling great. The team did a great job to get it where I needed it to be and it was definitely on for pole.

“I was two tenths up coming out of T2 – but from T8 onwards it started to deteriorate and I couldn’t maintain the gap. I’ve missed out on pole, so I didn’t do what I was supposed to do – but it’s in the past now, so you just let it go and look forwards. It doesn’t mean the race isn’t there to win tomorrow. I’ll try to get a good start and see how it goes from there.

“I don’t know what the strategy will be – we’ll look through that tonight. But this is a track where you can overtake, so I don’t have to go for it at the first corner. It can be somewhere else. Last time we raced here I started dead last and finished on the podium, so this is definitely a big step up from that! The pace is clearly there, so it’s still been a good day and I’m generally pretty happy. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to do something from where I am. I’m just focused on trying to move forward and if I can drive like I have done in the past few races then anything can happen.”

Finally… Lewis Hamilton took his 48th career victory – his fifth at the Hungaroring and fifth of the 2016 season so far. Nico Rosberg completed a third Silver Arrows 1-2 of the season in P2. Hamilton (192) now leads the Drivers’ Championship by six points from Rosberg (186) in P2. MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS (378) leads Ferrari (224) by 154 points in the Constructors’ Championship.

Lewis Hamilton: “I don’t know what the secret is here. Naturally, having a great team and everything coming together is key. But it’s a track that I think really works well for an aggressive driver. Sunday was one of the hottest races I can remember here. Looking after the tyres in those conditions was really hard, so I’m glad I managed. Thank you to everyone in the team for all their hard work – and to all the fans I have here. I don’t know why but, when I go to Budapest, I always seem to have a lot of support. I love it here so it makes for a great week.

“I didn’t know how long the tyres were going to last, so trying to spend the money wisely in terms of tyre life and being able to push when I needed to push was a tricky balance to find. The race was going really well and I was just thinking ‘huh, no mistakes so far’ when I managed to lock up and went off at T12! At that point I was like ‘hey, stay focused and get back on it!’ which luckily I managed to do.

“I’ve not really thought about the standings much but it’s definitely a good feeling to get the job done here – particularly as it’s not been my strongest weekend. Not as strong as Silverstone, for example. But it’s been an awesome few races and I’ve just got to keep that kind of form up for the rest of the season.”

Nico Rosberg: “Really, I lost the win in the first corner when I dropped down two positions, so I’m disappointed as I wanted to win the race and was confident I had a strong possibility to do so. It wasn’t the best start from me, so it was good to catch Daniel directly in T1 and get P2 back. But behind Lewis it was impossible to overtake on this track. I had great pace in the race, which is very positive – but unfortunately I wasn’t able to make the most of it. It’s great that my second home race is coming up so soon. I look forward to Hockenheim and will be pushing flat out to repeat the win from 2014.”

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: “We’re delighted with today’s result. To take a one-two finish at a circuit that hasn’t been so good to us in the past two years is really satisfying. This place has been Red Bull and Ferrari territory, so it just shows what a great place we have got to with our chassis and engine package that we were able to take such a strong finish and control the race like we did. It was a race that needed a lot of management and we had told the drivers all weekend that winning would depend on making the tyres last. They both did this really well – though when things got a bit close for comfort in the second stint, we asked Lewis to pick up the pace and he responded well to build the gap we needed after Red Bull rolled the dice with Ricciardo’s strategy.

“The back markers were a challenge like always here, particularly some of the usual suspects, but they didn’t end up influencing the outcome which was good. There has been a lot of talk about the Championship situation but, if this was a football match, we’d have only just completed the first half. There’s still a very long way to go this season. We have seen a lot of action so far and I am sure there will be much more to come…”

Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): “After the rather drawn out excitement of yesterday’s Qualifying session we were hoping for something slightly more straightforward today – and so it proved to be. Strong starts from all of the top five drivers meant they came into T1 in close formation. It looked for a moment like Lewis might lose the lead he’d grasped off the line and that Nico would find himself down to third. However, great driving from both saw Lewis hang on in front while Nico produced a fantastic manoeuvre around the outside at T2 to re-establish a 1-2 for the team. From there, it was a matter of controlling the pace and tyre usage through a two-stop strategy.

“Red Bull chose to make a very early final stop for Ricciardo which put some pressure on us – as I’m sure it was intended to do. But both cars were able to respond with enough pace to keep him covered and stick to our original plan. Overall an excellent 1-2 finish and an excellent way to cap off the first half of the season, which we can be very proud of thus far. Congratulations to the drivers – and also to the pit crew, who achieved a second consecutive fastest race pit stop. We now very much look forward to our home race in Germany next week.”

A brief respite from the misery as we see success in cycling, tennis and Formula One as home race heroics from Lewis Hamilton followed for the third time by Nico Rosberg complete a Silver Arrows 1-2 at Silverstone.

In the words of the boys…

Lewis Hamilton: “Best weekend of the whole year! I couldn’t believe it started raining at the beginning of the race. I thought: ‘are you serious?’ It makes it so much harder for everyone when that happens. I couldn’t really see the safety car either. It was going really slowly and my rear brakes were getting way too cold, so I was trying to heat them up and before I knew it I’m heading straight for the back of the thing! Thank goodness I could turn!

“Luckily it was okay and from there I was feeling great in the wet conditions. A huge thank you first of all to the team for doing such an amazing job. Our performance this weekend has been outstanding. The engineers and mechanics did a great job, so big thanks to all of them once again. And then the crowd… I mean, where do they all come from? It’s absolutely amazing! Nothing we see in any other country even comes close – and that for me just shows the passion us Brits have for sport, regardless of the weather. It’s pouring down and these guys are just like ‘yeah, we love it!’

“This is beyond my wildest dreams, honestly. When I was younger I didn’t see the other stuff that comes with being a Formula One driver. I was just in awe of the racing and it wasn’t until I grew up that I started to understand. I’m just trying to bask in the glory and enjoy it because one day I’ll be watching someone else, hopefully a young Brit, winning here and I want to make the most of these moments. For now though, it’s my time – our time. Thank you so much to everyone out there today. It’s just been unbelievable.”

Nico Rosberg: “Lewis did a better job over the whole weekend and deserved the win, so congratulations to him. I was happy to have finished the race as my gearbox issue at the end was really serious and I almost had to retire the car – but luckily I got it fixed. Generally, though, it felt great out there and I had a great pace on the medium tyres. The battle with Max was good fun. It took a bit of time but I managed to overtake him on the outside. Over the whole weekend the atmosphere here at Silverstone was really outstanding.

“Okay, I recognise that some guys out there don’t like me as much as Lewis. But that’s normal in his home country and I felt that the majority was very supportive of me. That’s why the British fans are the best and most passionate racing fans in the world, so thank you to them for making it a really great event. Now I look forward to the last two races before the summer break including my home Grand Prix in Germany.”

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: “This afternoon was Formula One at its best: probably the best fans in the world, a wet-dry race, loads of incidents and overtaking, and a fantastic home winner at the end of it all. On days like this, Lewis is unstoppable: he pulled the gap in the early laps, we made the perfect call on the strategy, then he controlled the race from there. He was calm all day, had everything under control and just nailed the race. Brilliant.

“For Nico, it was a bit trickier: running in the spray in the wet always costs lap time, then he had a long battle with Max. He lost out on the intermediates, but then was able to hunt him down after switching to the dry tyres and pulled off a great outside move in to Stowe, one of the fastest points on the circuit. In the final laps, he was stuck in seventh gear, which was clearly a critical problem that would have resulted in failure.

“Our understanding of the rules is that this kind of message is allowed – it’s not the kind of driver coaching the rules were designed to prevent – so we gave him the necessary information and he did a great job to hold his position and bring the car home. It’s an amazing feeling for the whole team to win a fourth British Grand Prix in a row, in front of so many of our colleagues from our factories in Brixworth and Brackley. It will be a big celebration with our families this evening and then back hard to work in the morning. After so much drama already in 2016, it’s amazing to think we haven’t yet even reached the halfway point of the season…”

Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): “A fantastic race result as the home Grand Prix for everyone at Brackley and Brixworth. We haven’t had a 1-2 since Russia, so it’s great to have both drivers up there on the top two steps once again. Our congratulations first and foremost to Lewis on a third consecutive home victory – his fourth in total thus far – and a really perfect weekend overall. We were spared the variability of a standing race start with the last-minute downpour. From there, we had two clean rounds of pit stops – benefiting nicely from a convenient VSC period for the switch to intermediates. Both were double-stops with the drivers arriving in quick succession, which is never an easy task, but were immaculately executed by the crew, so well done to them.

“As the race settled down from there, it was clear that Lewis was in control while Nico had a battle on his hands with Verstappen. The Red Bull was strong in the wet – likely due to their choice to run with a higher wing level over ultimate top speed. It was a great duel between the two of them, with Max managing to make his car very wide indeed but Nico eventually pulling off a fantastic move around the outside at Stowe corner to take the place.

“A crisis then developed six laps from the end when Nico’s gearbox got stuck in seventh gear. To finish the race with minimal use of that gear while also fending off the advances of the Red Bull behind really was a great piece of driving, so we applaud him for that. A huge thank you and congratulations to everyone at Brackley and Brixworth for bringing us such performance from the car and the result today. A proud day for the team in front of a truly fantastic crowd.”

Nico Rosberg took his 19th career victory today – his fifth of 2016 – to become the first Grand Prix winner at the Baku City Circuit. A difficult afternoon for Lewis Hamilton saw him recover from a P10 grid slot to eventually finish fifth. Rosberg (141) leads the Drivers’ Championship by 24 points from Hamilton (117) in P2. MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS (258) lead Ferrari (177) by 81 points in the Constructors’ Championship.

Nico Rosberg: “I am so happy to win here in Baku. I really felt at one with the car in a way I’ve never felt before. I didn’t have the feeling that something would go wrong at any point today. The car was awesome this weekend, so thank you so much to the team for this. I already began to sense it in Qualifying yesterday, this perfect feeling.

“We expected a Safety Car moment in this race, so I was hoping that it wouldn’t happen as that tends to mess up the race in general. But it was a pretty straightforward afternoon for me at the front. There was only one little concern when I felt that I was down on power a bit in the middle of the race. The engineers weren’t allowed to tell me what I had to do, so I had a look at my steering wheel and tried to fix it myself, which worked out well.”

Lewis Hamilton: “I have no idea what happened out there today. I just had no power. I was in an engine mode which made it feel like I was driving without ERS for a long time. We have hundreds of different combinations of switch position on the wheel and, no matter how much you study, there’s no way to remember them all. I was driving around looking at my screen trying to work out what was wrong – but I couldn’t see anything I’d done differently.

“It’s such a complicated, technical formula we have now and I don’t really see the benefit in preventing us from being able to fix these things out on track. It was just a real shame that I couldn’t race. If I’d been able to resolve it, I might have at least been able to be a part of the show and fight with the guys ahead of me. With about 10 laps to go it sorted itself out – but by that time there was nothing to be gained or lost as I was more than ten seconds behind the guy in front and the same ahead of the guy behind. I actually turned the engine down at the end to save it, knowing that I don’t have so many left for the season. But it wasn’t to be today, so the result is what it is. I’ve got points for P5 and now I’ll try to bounce back at the next race.”

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport: “We all went into the race expecting lots of action – and while maybe the 51 laps didn’t deliver as many fireworks as we saw in other races this weekend, there was plenty going on in our garage! First of all, let’s talk about Nico. He did a fantastic job this entire weekend – a great pole position yesterday then a dominant race performance today. He got a good start, pulled away and just controlled everything from there; it wasn’t a problem-free afternoon for him but it was pretty close to being so.

“For Lewis, the first target was to survive lap one; he kept his nose clean and then started picking off the cars in front of him. He reported some electrical de-rates quite early on but it only became clear around his pit stop that he was suffering from quite a big performance deficit with the car. Once we had identified the problem, it could have been changed with a single radio message – but the rules, which are of course the same for everybody, prevented us from doing so, and we were only authorised by the FIA to use very specific phrasing. It was an unusual and counter-intuitive problem with an engine mode so there was no way Lewis could know what to change to solve it. Eventually, he managed to find the right solution – as Nico had done several laps earlier, having switched into the mode causing the problem part way through the race – and then he set the fastest lap of the race at that point.

“However, it was too late to recover any position, so he took the smart decision to save the engine and bring the car home. We have had a warm welcome here in Baku and the organisers have delivered a fantastic and exciting new street circuit. But from the team’s point of view, although we extended our points lead, we should have come away with more – and correcting those problems will be our focus in the coming days.”

Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical): “Starting at the very beginning, we were relieved to see both cars make it cleanly round the first lap after the chaos of the GP2 races earlier in the weekend. From there, Nico did a fantastic job. After a great pole position yesterday, he capitalised on that with a superbly controlled drive from start to finish – managing his tyres, engine and brakes perfectly.

“For Lewis, it was never going to be easy from P10. Unfortunately, this turned out to be even more difficult than we had predicted. The pace of the car was not as strong as it had seemed on our long runs during Friday’s practice sessions, with some of our rivals proving impossible to overtake. This is something we need to look into and understand, as he wasn’t able to extract the pace he’d shown throughout the weekend to that point.

“We did see a problem with Hybrid energy management on both cars. There was a configuration related to the management of Hybrid energy which unfortunately was not correctly tuned during our race preparations. What this caused was premature de-rates down the straight, costing the driver around three to four tenths of a second per lap. It was only present when the driver selected a specific strategy mode on the steering wheel, with the other modes unaffected. Unfortunately, under the new radio restrictions introduced for this year, the team is unable to tell the driver which mode to use – or not to use, in this case.

“Having sought permission to do so from the FIA, we were able to give the drivers an indication – but nothing more. It was a bit like asking them to solve a crossword puzzle with minimal clues while driving at in excess of 200mph, which is no mean feat! Unfortunately for Lewis, it took around 15 laps to rectify the problem. This lost him a lot of time before eventually he was back to full speed – by which time it was too late to make a charge for the podium, which was a definite possibility for him today. The bigger problem we need to understand is why his car was not as quick as it should have been overall.”