Carlos Sainz took a fantastic pole position for Scuderia Ferrari at the Mexico City Grand Prix, edging out championship leader Max Verstappen by 0.225-second margin.
Sainz was in impressive form throughout the qualifying session and found two lap times good enough for pole – opening his Q3 run with one minute, 16.055 seconds and improving on his final run with one minute, 15.946 seconds to line up at the front of Sunday’s grid.
Verstappen rescued a front-row start after losing his first Q3 lap to track limits having cut corners in the Turn 2/3 chicane, and set a time of one minute, 16.171 seconds on his final attempt to qualify ahead of his title rival Lando Norris.
Lando’s first lap was poor and was only fifth at the end of the opening runs, but found improvement on his final lap to head the second row alongside Charles Leclerc.
The United States Grand Prix winner saved a snap through the high-speed corners and managed to collect fourth, although it was three tenths down on his teammate.
The Mercedes drivers occupied the third row, as George Russell outqualified Lewis Hamilton as George improved more on the final lap. They were ahead of an impressive Kevin Magnussen, who slotted his car seventh on the grid over Pierre Gasly.
Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg were ninth and tenth, the Haas driver having overcooked it on the exit of Turn 12 on his last lap to lose a chance at moving further up the grid.
Yuki Tsunoda was the master of his own Q2 elimination after putting his RB in the wall ahead the Foro Sol section while on a flying lap, causing a red flag with a crash at Turn 12.
This also denied his teammate Liam Lawson the chance to progress, as the two looked set to improve and challenge Gasly.
Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were both starting their final flying laps before the session was stopped and were subsequently eliminated, while Valtteri Bottas was also denied the chance to break out of Q2 following the incident.
Oscar Piastri and Sergio Perez were the big hitters taken in Q1; the McLaren driver unable to reclaim his FP3-topping form and failed to progress into the second stage of qualifying – making his life more difficult by losing a lap for track limits.
Oscar reckoned that had he not gone beyond the Turn 12 kerb and lost a second in the process, he would have made it through.
Home fans favourite Perez was dropped out at the first stage of qualifying for his home race having struggled with braking in the low-speed corners throughout the session. Checo only got up to P15 on his final lap of the opening stage but was shuffled down the order by Charles Leclerc’s escape from the drop zone.
Esteban Ocon and Zhou Guanyu will be at the back of the grid, as Ocon’s late effort to overturn Lance Stroll didn’t work out in the final sector.
So congratulations to Carlos Sainz in taking pole position. This is a solid chance to end his Ferrari career with a win as next year, the Smooth Operator will drive for Williams so winning before parting ways will be a nice result.
As for Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, the two title contenders are next to each other and it will be fascinating what will happen at the start thanks to the long run down to Turn 1. Bring on the race!
Mexico City Grand Prix, qualifying positions:
1 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:15.946
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:16.171
3 Lando Norris McLaren 1:16.260
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:16.265
5 George Russell Mercedes 1:16.356
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:16.651
7 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:16.886
8 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:16.892
9 Alexander Albon Williams 1:17.065
10 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:17.365
11 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:17.129
12 Liam Lawson RB 1:17.162
13 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:17.168
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:17.294
15 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:17.817
16 Franco Colapinto Williams 1:17.558
17 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:17.597
18 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:17.611
19 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:17.617
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:18.072
Carlos Sainz has taken a stunning pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix, the Ferrari driver going fastest from Max Verstappen and Lando Norris during what had been a dramatic qualifying session featuring a red flag in Q2 and two shock exits in Q1.
While Verstappen initially looked to have sealed provisional pole in the first runs of Q3, the Dutchman’s time was deleted due to track limits which promoted Sainz up into the top slot. And when it came to the second runs, the Spaniard went even quicker by pumping in an impressive 1m 15.946s.
Verstappen claimed P2, the Red Bull man’s time 0.225s back from Sainz, while Norris took third after previously setting the pace in Q1 and Q2 for McLaren. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc followed in fourth, ahead of the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton on the third row.
Kevin Magnussen was the best of the rest for Haas in P7, followed by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly in P8 and the Williams of Alex Albon in P9. The sister Haas of Nico Hulkenberg, meanwhile, rounded out the top 10.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/sainz-clinches-sensational-pole-position-ahead-of-verstappen-and-norris.5b8PfwxS7dT9icIJsWGtCf
Oscar Piastri has conceded the error that saw him eliminated from Q1 for Formula 1’s Mexican Grand Prix was a “very poor mistake”.
The McLaren driver went off the track at Turn 12 in the opening phase of qualifying, with his car bottoming out over the kerbs. His lap time was deleted for crossing the track limits, but the time he lost by getting out of shape would not have been good enough to secure a spot in Q2 anyway.
Up until that point the Australian had been over a second up on his previous best, leaving him to rue the error that saw him dumped out of Q1 for the first time this season.
“I just went off in the Turn 12, got beached on the kerb there, and that was it,” Piastri told Sky Sports F1. “My lap was easily going to be enough, so it’s very frustrating to make that mistake. I lost about a second.
“It’s just a tricky circuit but I don’t think today was down to it being tricky. It was just I made a very poor mistake, and that was it.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/piastri-slates-very-poor-mistake-that-led-to-mexico-q1-exit/10667196/
Sergio Perez says braking issues were behind his painful Q1 elimination at his Mexican Grand Prix home race, explaining he “could not stop the car” at the end of the straights.
Perez only managed the 18th-fastest time in Q1 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, missing the cutoff by two tenths and joining McLaren driver Oscar Piastri in the drop zone.
Perez had been struggling all weekend with the front of his Red Bull RB20 and unresolved braking issues, which made him unable to attack corners.
“I’ve been struggling quite a bit with braking. Every time I try attack the braking, I just put too much energy through the tyres and that makes it very tricky for me to stop the car,” he said.
“It’s been there for the last three races where I cannot stop the car. I’m having to modulate my braking quite a lot and that’s something we can see in the data, but we are not able to fix it at the moment. It’s mainly on the straight line I cannot stop the car. I just slide too much and given that it’s all surface sensitivity here, it makes it a lot harder.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/perez-puzzled-by-brake-issues-in-mexico-f1-qualifying-disaster/10667208/
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella reckons the team’s execution let it down in Mexico Grand Prix qualifying and felt pole was possible.
But Lando Norris, who was quickest in both Q1 and Q2, suggested he had hit the limit of potential in his car.
He was unable to hit the ground running at the start of Q3 and was only fifth fastest at the end of the opening runs before improving on his follow-up effort, which earned him third on the grid.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Stella felt that performance was ‘left behind’ in qualifying, also noting Oscar Piastri’s mistake at Turn 12 that consigned him to a surprising Q1 exit having headlined FP3 earlier on Saturday.
“Overall I would say the car during this qualifying session was competitive, and was in a condition to score the pole position, even though Carlos in the final session kind of raised the bar quite a bit,” said Stella.
“If we take the natural progression, then with Lando we might have been there. But we have to say that the two laps in Q3, they weren’t great.
“In the first one, there were a couple of mistakes – these overheated the tyres and then the tyres were going away from Lando.
“In the second one, it wasn’t very clean, but it was important to make sure that it was decent enough to be there in the first or the second row.
“So we’re all encouraged that the car was performing well, but at the same time, from an execution point of view, we left a little bit of performance behind, especially with Oscar in Q1, where he had the lap time deleted and he missed it.
“We have quite a lot of work ahead of us to get back in the points.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/stella-critical-of-mclarens-mexico-gp-qualifying-execution-as-norris-hits-limit/10667257/
Carlos Sainz expressed his satisfaction after he put on a charging display during qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix – the Ferrari driver leaving the competition in his wake en route to pole position.
Sitting on provisional pole after his first lap, with Max Verstappen having lost a lap time over track limits, Sainz improved to a 1m 15.946s next time around to finish two-tenths clear of his Red Bull rival at the chequered flag.
Asked to reflect on the sixth pole of his F1 career, which he will be aiming to turn into a fourth victory, Sainz said: “[I’m] very happy. A great couple of laps.
“A lot of times around Mexico you always have the feeling like you cannot put a lap together and it’s extremely difficult with how much sliding there is, but today honestly my two laps of Q3 were pretty much identical, almost perfect.
“I just put two really solid laps [together] in Q3, enough for pole, and I’m very happy because that’s not normally the case around Mexico with how tricky it is.”
After Ferrari’s one-two finish last time out in the United States, Sainz added: “We’ve done – it seems like especially on my side – a step up. Also in qualifying, trying to find something extra with the out-lap and tyre preparation, and it seems like we’re going in the right direction.
“Obviously I’m looking forward to finishing the job tomorrow, but at least the pole position of today I’ll take it, because it shows progress and some really solid laps.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/sainz-hails-almost-perfect-performance-for-mexico-pole-as-he-vows-to-finish.1XjHRZ9sMhJMhJeAeZBXZw