 Complete the following phrase:  After having trailed behind Ferrari in all three practice sessions in Germany, Mercedes benefited from technical issues on Vettels and Leclercs cars during qualifying. With both Ferraris being out of contention for the final segment of qualifying, Hamilton took pole while Bottas finished third, behind Verstappen. However, rainy conditions caused a chaotic race which was riddled with both strategy and driver errors. Bottas crashed out while chasing Stroll for P3 while Hamilton finished outside the points in P11. Despite this, after the race, a time penalty was applied to both Alfa Romeo drivers which elevated Hamilton into P9. This result meant that Mercedes avoided their first pointless result since the 