Charles Leclerc starts ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz to lockout the front row for the Mexico City Grand Prix, whilst Verstappen is joined by Ricciardo on the second row of the grid.
Q1
Fernando Alonso made an uncharacteristic mistake on his final flying lap, spinning on the exit of turn 3. Whilst he didn’t damage the car, he had kept it parked so not to re-join the track dangerously, which did cause the yellow flags to be brought out in that part of the track and DRS to be disabled there, compromising all the drivers starting laps after him.
There was a shock exit in Q1 as Lando Norris was knocked out in 19th place. He didn’t get a competitive lap in after firstly going out on mediums, then he made a mistake on his second lap which compromised his time, and then Alonso’s spin meant that he had to slow down on his final lap due to yellow flags, aborting his lap as a result.
ELIMINATED
16. Esteban Ocon – Alpine +0.064
17. Kevin Magnussen – Haas +0.147
18. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin +0.211
19. Lando Norris – McLaren +2.538
20. Logan Sargeant – Williams NO TIME
Q2
Alex Albon had been complaining about the way his car was feeling, especially compared to how well it had been performing in practice. He had managed to climb up to 9th following his final run, though this lap time would be deleted due to track limits, knocking him out in Q2.
Daniel Ricciardo had been given a helping hand by his teammate by way of getting a slipstream, since Tsunoda will be starting from the back of the grid for tomorrow’s race. This propelled him up to 4th in this session, even ahead of Sergio Perez in the main Red Bull team.
ELIMINATED
11. Pierre Gasly – Alpine +0.081
12. Nico Hulkenberg – Haas +0.084
13. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin +0.298
14. Alex Albon – Williams +0.707
15. Yuki Tsunoda – Alpha Tauri NO TIME
Q3
Ferrari managed to pull some pace out of nowhere at the start of Q3, with Leclerc going fastest and Sainz joining him for a Ferrari 1-2. Verstappen had only managed to go 3rd fastest, whilst Ricciardo managed to repeat his 4th place from Q2.
On their final runs, both Leclerc and Sainz were unable to improve, nor was Ricciardo. Verstappen did improve, though it wasn’t by enough to get onto the front row. Hometown hero Sergio Perez also managed to improve, though only managed 5th fastest.
Both Mercedes drivers looked like they could have contended for pole in Q1 and Q2, but by the time things wrapped up in Q3, they were only good enough for 6th and 8th.
Qualifying Results
1. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari 1:17.166
2. Carlos Sainz – Ferrari +0.067
3. Max Verstappen – Red Bull +0.097
4. Daniel Ricciardo – Alpha Tauri +0.216
5. Sergio Perez – Red Bull +0.257
6. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes +0.288
7. Oscar Piastri– McLaren +0.457
8. George Russell – Mercedes +0.508
9. Valtteri Bottas – Alfa Romeo +0.866
10. Zhou Guanyu – Alfa Romeo +1.167
