German GP: Ferrari pins race hopes on cooler track

The Spaniard qualified seventh for the Scuderia at Hockenheim, helped by Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton crashing out in Q1 after a brake disc failure, and Jenson Button failing to make Q3 in the improved McLaren.

Alonso said the F14 T struggles over longer runs in extreme heat, so expects to slip back in tomorrow's race unless the weather cools off.

"Cooler temperatures this year seem to have an effect on us being a little bit more competitive," Alonso said.

"We have a lot of tyre degradation, especially at the rear because we spin the tyres with the lack of downforce.

"When it's hot this effect is a little bit bigger.

"I think in qualifying with the new tyres you mask some of the problems with the grip of the tyres, so I expect tomorrow to be a little bit tougher than the performance we showed today."

Team-mate Raikkonen ended up down in 12th after a mistake on his final run in the second segment of qualifying.

The Finn said a water pump problem during Friday practice, followed by a fuel pressure problem in Saturday's final practice session, had made things more difficult.

"I took the second set [of tyres] and for some reason I lost the rear end at Turn 2 and lost a lot of time and it was difficult to gain back after that," Raikkonen explained.

"I just couldn't put the lap down but the car felt pretty okay.

"We had problems yesterday morning and problems this morning so that doesn't help."