Verstappen fends off Mercedes pair for maiden Mexico City pole
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took pole position over the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in a scintillating qualifying session in Mexico City.
Hamilton led Q1 and repeated the feat in Q2, but his first Q3 run was chalked off for track limits, which meant Verstappen held provisional pole over Russell.
Final flying runs saw Verstappen improve again, this time to a benchmark of 1m 17.775s, to leave Russell second by 0.304s – as he had his final run chalked off for track limits – and Hamilton another 0.005s off in P3.
Home favourite Sergio Perez qualified fourth, 0.353s off the pace, and Carlos Sainz took fifth – over half a second off pole.
Valtteri Bottas split the Ferraris, with the Alfa Romeo driver taking sixth ahead of Charles Leclerc, while Lando Norris qualified eighth for McLaren. The Alpines lined up ninth and 10th, Fernando Alonso ahead of Esteban Ocon to seal the intra-team qualifying battle.
McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo missed out on Q3 as he qualified 11th, ahead of Zhou Guanyu and then the AlphaTauris of Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly. Kevin Magnussen qualified 15th for Haas but will start last as he has a five-place penalty for taking his sixth engine of the season.
Mick Schumacher had a time deleted in Q1 and finished 16th, with the same time as Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel in P17 – having set his time after the Haas. Lance Stroll, who qualified 18th for Aston Martin, is set to start 19th as he has a three-place penalty after a collision with Alonso in Austin.
Alex Albon and Nicholas Latifi, who rounded out the standings in that order for Williams, will therefore be promoted two places apiece for Sunday’s race.
