Carlos Sainz took his 6th career pole position in Mexico, being joined by Max Verstappen on the front row and having Lando Norris just behind in third.
Q1
Track evolution was a big factor in the opening part of qualifying, with times falling rapidly throughout the opening 18 minutes. The majority of those at the top running teams chose to use mediums for their banker runs, but these times would quickly be surpassed.
Sergio Perez has faced a lot of criticism for his performances over the last couple of seasons, and he was unable to dispel these criticisms at his home grand prix after putting in a poor display in Q1. After his banker lap left him in last, partly because of the quality of his lap and partly through track evolution, he was unable to use the grip that the track had gained over the session to significantly improve his time, and he would end up in 18th.
Oscar Piastri was the biggest surprise in Q1. Despite being fastest in FP3, he never seemed to be able to quite pull a good lap together in this session, and as a result would be knocked out of Q1 alongside Perez, finishing qualifying in 17th.
ELIMINATED
16. Franco Colapinto – Williams +0.151
17. Oscar Piastri– McLaren +0.190
18. Sergio Perez – Red Bull +0.204
19. Esteban Ocon – Alpine +0.210
20. Zhou Guanyu – Kick Sauber +0.665
Q2.
Charles Leclerc had put a lot of pressure on himself for his final Q2 run after having had his initial time deleted for cutting the corner at turn 2. Fortunately for him and Ferrari fans, he was able to pick up the pieces on his second run, and managed to pull himself up to fourth fastest to comfortably make it up to Q3.
Neither RB driver would be able to make it to Q3 though, after Tsunoda crashed at turn 12. This would bring out the red flag with just 10 seconds remaining in the session, and with both he and teammate Liam Lawson in the bottom five this meant that both would be knocked out, with Lawson yet to set an improved second lap.
ELIMINATED
11. Yuki Tsunoda – Alpha Tauri +0.081
12. Liam Lawson – RB +0.114
13. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin +0.120
14. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin +0.246
15. Valtteri Bottas – Kick Sauber +0.769
Q3
Max Verstappen started Q3 with a quick time that looked like it could be hard to beat. However, this time would be deleted for cutting the corner at turn 2 just as Leclerc had done earlier, leaving Ferrari as the provisional team to beat. Luckily for Verstappen, he would have another set of fresh soft tyres.
The Ferraris would be the first of the front runners to set their final Q3 times, and whilst Leclerc would start his lap quickly, that pace would start to fall away over the final two sectors, and he would ultimately only go fourth fastest. Sainz, on the other hand, was able to blitz the field in qualifying, and set the fastest time of the entire session, being the only one to dip under 1 minute 16 seconds.
Max Verstappen and Lando Norris would both have a good crack at trying to take pole away from Sainz, but Verstappen would end up in second whilst Norris occupies 3rd for the start of tomorrow’s race. With such a long run down to turn 1, this could prove to actually be beneficial for the McLaren driver’s chances of winning the grand prix.
Qualifying results
1. Carlos Sainz – Ferrari +0.322
2. Max Verstappen – Red Bull +0.031
3. Lando Norris – McLaren 1:32.330
4. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari +0.410
5. George Russell – Mercedes +0.644
6. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes +0.121
7. Pierre Gasly – Alpine +0.688
8.
9. Kevin Magnussen – Haas +1.151Alex Albon – Williams +0.018
10. Nico Hulkenberg – Haas +0.070
