Max Verstappen is hoping for rain during Sunday's German Grand Prix after taking second place on the grid behind championship leader Lewis Hamilton.

The 21-year-old was 0.346 second slower than Hamilton at Hockeheim but that proved quick enough to deny Mercedes another lock-out of the front row, with Valtteri Bottas edged into third.

It was a positive outcome for Verstappen at an eventful session on Saturday, in which Ferrari suffered dreadful technical problems that meant Sebastian Vettel will start his home grand prix from the back of the grid and Charles Leclerc will line up in 10th.

Verstappen reported power problems of his own in Q2 and was forced to complete Q3 on soft tyres, having opted to start with mediums in the hope of a dry race day.

Given his issues and those of Ferrari, the Dutchman was very pleased to land second spot and is now eager for the weather to lend him a helping hand.

"We definitely found a bit more performance in the car overnight, so this morning I was actually quite happy with the car," he said.

"It fell a little bit away from me but I think to be on the front row was a good achievement here.

"We have to take into account that Ferrari had a problem with both cars at the end, they definitely would have been fighting for pole, but you have to be there when they have problems and we maximised that to be on the front row.

"I have to be on a different strategy, which I actually didn't want, with that little issue in Q2, but we can fight with that tyre as well. Maybe a little bit of rain as well will be spicing things up!"