Mexico City GP: Sainz snatches pole from Verstappen and Norris
Yesterday at 06:21 PM
Ferrari's Carlos Sainz claimed his sixth career pole position by pipping Max Verstappen to the top spot in qualifying for Sunday's Mexico City Grand Prix at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
Verstappen's chief title rival Lando Norris missed out on the front row but the McLaren will start from the second row alongside Charles Leclerc, while George Russell and Lewis Hamilton made it an all-Mercedes row three.
The session saw a brief stoppage after a heavy crash for RB's Yuki Tsunoda at the end of Q2, and there were shock first round exits for Oscar Piastri and home favourite Sergio Perez.
It has been a busy build-up to the Mexico City Grand Prix, with Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc taking charge on Friday. McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris were in the ascendency in final practice but problems for Max Verstappen. Who would come out top in qualifying?
Q1: Norris fastest as Piastri and Perez both miss the first cut
First out on track when the lights at the end of pit land went green for Q1 was Sauber's Valtteri Bottas followed by his team mate Zhou Guanyu and the two Alpines of Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly. Both Ferraris were also out, albeit on the medium compound rather than the expected softs. It was still good enough to put Sainz at the top by four tenths from Leclerc.
Then it was Norris in charge on a time of 1:17.203s with Lewis Hamilton slotting into thirds between the Ferrari cars but it was a disappointing start from Piastri who was only eighth fastest after locking up. Then it was Verstappen who overcame his early trials and tribulations to spring to the top by two tenths from Norris.
It was still early says with no times yet from either RB or Haas. When they lodged their first times, Nico Hulkenberg leapt into second and Yuki Tsunoda was fourth as the track rapidly ramped up. Then it was Pierre Gaslys time to shine in second, all of which pushed down Aston Martin duo Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll who had climbed up after taking a second set of softs.
The rapidly evolving situation was threatening to catch out a number of top names including Piastri, George Russell and Sergio Perez. Russell soon leapt to safety in fourth while his Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton was only P8 on his next soft-shod effort. The laps continued to come fast and furious as the clock ran down. Norris had a three tenths advantage over Sainz and Verstappen at the top well ahead of Leclerc and Kevin Magnussen.
But the real drama was among the lower ranks: late fliers from Bottas and Stroll got both through to the second round at the cost of Williams' Franco Colapinto who had lost time with a small lock-up in turn 4. The big shock came from Piastri and Perez both missing the first cut, the McLaren having a lap time deleted at the wrong moment although it still wouldn't have been good enough to get him through. Less surprisingly also out were Ocon and Zhou.
"I just went off in turn 12," Piastri explained. "Just got beached on the kerb there and that was it. Very frustrated to make that mistake, I lost about a second. So yeah, painful. It's a tricky circuit, but today wasn't down to it being tricky - I just made one mistake and that was it."
Q2: Norris stays quickest over Verstappen after red flag for Tsunoda
After that breathless start there was a brief pause before the second round got underway with both Ferrari drivers setting off on used sets of soft tyres. Also quick to head out were Verstappen and Alex Albon. The Red Bull sets a target time of 1:16.629s for the other cars to aim for, with Sainz half a second back and Leclerc's suffering a lurid sideways slide that saw his first time deleted, allowing Gasly to take up P3 in his stead.
But that was only the opening salvo and soon Norris was in charge at the top by three tenths, with Russell and Hamilton then making their Q2 bow in third and fourth respectively. As the cars headed back to pit lane to regroup at the midpoint of Q2, a strong lap from Albon meant that those at risk of elimination were Magnussen, Stroll, Hulkenberg and Bottas as well as Leclerc who was still lacking a time.
The cars were streaming back out with three minutes to go to make their claim in a place in the final round. On new tyres, Leclerc bounded up to third until Sainz improved his time to seize the honours; however it wasn't enough to steal P2 from Verstappen. Both Haas drivers made it into the top ten by the skin of their teeth just seconds before the session was red flagged, leaving Gasly squeaking through on the bubble.
The cause for the premature finish to Q2 was Tsunoda understeering and crashing out at turn 12. It left him on the wrong side of the cut and he will line up in 11th place on the grid tomorrow alongside his team mate Liam Lawson. Both Astons ended up being eliminated while Bottas was predictably the slowest of all.
Q3: Sainz seals Mexico GP pole ahead of Verstappen and Norris
There was a small delay clearing up Tsunoda's accident and effecting repairs to the barrier before the final top ten pole shoot-out round got underway. When the lights at the end of pit lane went green, it was Verstappen keen to get to work on a set of new tyres.
Verstappen's time of 1:16.368s was faster than Norris' messy run, but it wasn't enough to keep him ahead of Sainz' 1:16.055s set with with a little help from Leclerc, even before the Dutch driver's time was deleted for exceeding track limits leaving him P10 and all pressure on his second and final run to come. That promoted Leclerc to second with Russell and Hamilton up to third and fourth for Mercedes.
One final onslaught of flying laps ensued. Sainz duly clinched pole while Verstappen found enough time to split the Ferraris and go second, with Norris slotting in right behind him. Russell and Hamilton held on to the third row with Magnussen seventh ahead of Gasly and Albon pipping Hulkenberg to P9 after the Haas made a small error on his final run..
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