Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says Formula 1🀅 rivals Fe🃏rrari has an “illness” it needs to cure following its meltdown during German Grand Prix qualifying.

Ferrari, which is yet to win a race so far in 2019, had set the pace throughout the weekend and looked favourites to take pole at Hockenheim, only for its latest implosion to occur when separate reliabi꧅lity issues hit both its cars.

A turbo problem prevented home-favourite Sebastian Vettel from setting a laptime, leaving him 20th and last on the Hockenheim grid, while practice pacesetter Char🦄les Leclerc is set 🔯to start 10th after a fuel-related issue curtailed his Q3 running.

Lewis Hamilton took full advantage to land the 87th career pole of his career - an🏅d fourth of the cam🐽paign - ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas in third.

“It’s a shame for Ferrari and a shame for Sebastian at his home grand prix, we could really hear the crowds and you can꧒ hear that it’♏s a bit subdued at the moment,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1.

“Ferrari really has an illness and they need to cure that. It’s just a shame, we need them for a strong championship.

“But for us I’m happy because the session started really awfully - we did not un𝓀derstand why we were lacking pace and then it slowly came towards us.”

Asked to explain the three-tenth difference between Hamilton and Bottas, Wolff replied: “He’s not f🐈ar off but Lewis put in an incredible lap and tomorrow is the race.

“If the temperatures stay like this it’🎃s about making it to the end and having the right strategy and i think Valtteri has every chance.”

Wolff later clarified his comments as he felt his explanation was lost in translation regarding Ferrari’s situati💧on.

“I would neveꦦr use the word illness in connection with any other team, you can see how easy it is to fall in a trap meaning something completely different,” he said. “I can’t look into Ferrari and w♛e respect them as a brand as one of the best brands in the world and Ferrari is one of the most important teams in Formula 1 if not the most important.

“We embrace the competition with them and we enjoy it, we get angry, we fight them, that is what the sports needs that drama and glory. When you can see the German Grand Prix is Sebastian’s home race and he is not even able to qualify and needs to get out of th꧑e car and young Charles who is able to compete fꦆor pole position can’t start Q3, you can feel for them. We had it.

“We’ve had failure and consecutive failures which seem very difficult to handle but at the end of the day this is the toughest competition that exists in motor racing and getting the balance right between chasing the ultimate performance while keepi🌳ng reliability is very different.

“Having said that I am already doing them an injustice as I don’t know the reasons for failure. Mattia told me it is something different on bo👍th cars that they have not seen before. At the moment my sportsmanship p🌄revails in saying I don’t want to wish anybody bad luck.”