MEXICAN GP – Daniel Ricciardo denies Max Verstappen to take youngest pole sitter with Lewis Hamilton third
Daniel Ricciardo has beaten his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen to take pole position for the Mexican Grand Prix. The Australian out-qualified his teammate by two-hundredths of a second, denying him the chance of becoming the youngest pole sitter in the history of the sport.
Red Bull has not locked out the front row since Austin in 2013 and the team’s first under the hybrid turbo engine regulations, but this weekend the team had been looking for a good result as it offsets the power deficit of the Renault power unit. Ricciardo was faster on his final runs edging out his teammate taking his second pole of the season.
Verstappen had looked on course to become the youngest pole sitter in the sport’s history, before Ricciardo put in a brilliant final attempt to edge out his teammate. Lewis Hamilton will start fourth alongside his championship rival Sebastian Vettel.
Ricciardo said “I knew it was there somewhere,” says Daniel Ricciardo after finding his pace. I knew putting the lap together would be crucial as always.”
“Max showed the pace was in the car all weekend. I just knew I had to put in a clean lap at the end. Shout out to the team, it’s a one-two. It’s pretty cool.”
His teammate added “The whole qualifying was c***. Same problems from P2, engine braking not how I want to, rear-locking the car. We tried to make the best of it and I thought it was going to be enough with the problems we had, but it’s still good to be second.”
Hamilton has the least to lose in the race as he only needs seventh in one of the three remaining races, while Vettel must win all three to have any hope of winning his fifth title. There teammates Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen will start fifth and sixth.
The top three teams will all start the race on the supersoft tyre, this should allow them to run long on the first stints into the race.
Hamilton said “I’m really happy with it, we had a difficult day yesterday and it was much better today. I was not expecting to be up as high as we have done. The team did a great job yesterday, this was as good as I could get. I’m happy for Daniel, he did a good job.”
Vettel said “It was not a clean lap. I tried very hard and I knew I had to find two tenths to improve it didn’t happen but it was very close it wasn’t a bad lap but I had some snaps here and there.”
Renault continued their strong pace which the engine has this weekend to be best of the rest with Nico Hulkenberg seventh and Carlos Sainz eighth. The French manufacturer has put in a brilliant performance but remained over a second off the Red Bull, also powered by the Renault power unit.
It was another strong session for Sauber with both Charles Leclerc and Marcus Ericsson through to Q3. The Swiss team less than a tenth off the Renault, but the Monacan was unable to improve on his final run, that pushed him down to ninth.
Force India however, opted not to risk sending their cars out on the hypersofts in Q2, that left them eleventh with Esteban Ocon and thirteenth with Sergio Perez. That could prove to be the better choice, as the team are free to start the race on new tyres of their choice.
The Force India’s were split by the McLaren of Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard managed to edge out the Frenchman by three hundredths off a second. The Toro Rosso’s also made it through to Q2, with Brendon Hartley fourteenth and Pierre Gasly fifteenth, after opting not to set a time.
The Frenchman knowing he has an engine and a gearbox change meant he went into the session consigned to a back-of-the-grid start, so Toro Rosso opted to save tyres and mileage.
Joining him will be Romain Grosjean who was sixteenth and his Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen eighteenth. The two split by the Grosjean was awarded a three place grid penalty for a collision at the start of last Sunday’s United States Grand Prix.
It was another difficult session for Williams, the former world champions filling the filling the back row with Lance Stroll almost two tenths faster than teammate Sergey Sirotkin.
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