MEXICO CITY GP – Carlos Sainz beats Max Verstappen to pole by two tenths with Lando Norris third
Carlos Sainz has taken pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix, on his second run in Q3 the Ferrari driver set a 15.946 going two-tenths faster than Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. The Spaniard took his first pole in a year with two laps in the final part of qualifying, while Verstappen had it all to do on his last lap after his first lap was deleted for track limits.
Sainz looked on fire with both his laps with him improving by a tenth from his first attempt in Q3, while Verstappen lost his first lap for breaching track limits at the first chicane. Norris was almost a tenth behind his championship rival as he goes into the race fifty-seven points behind, the McLaren driver also had a poor first attempt going fifth before improving to third, nine hundredths behind Verstappen.
Ferrari looked strong throughout Friday practice, but McLaren had a one-two in final practice ahead of qualifying. But, similarly to last year in Mexico City, Ferrari was quick as the track evolved and conditions cooled slightly, which Sainz made the most of after Q3 was delayed by Yuki Tsunoda’s crash at the end of Q2.
Verstappen proving why he was a three-time champion, under pressure to deliver on his final attempt he kept the car within track limits to go second. Norris also had a poor attempt before using the slipstream to go third. Neither of the title contenders could get close to Sainz though, who took his first pole since the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix.
However, both title rivals will not have the support of their respective teammates Sergio Perez and Oscar Piastri, as they were knocked out in Q1. Piastri seventeenth after going almost a thousandth and a half faster than the Red Bull.
Sainz, who took his first pole since Singapore 2023 and for whom both laps in final qualifying were good enough to start at the front, said: “Probably the biggest difficult thing will be the run down into Turn One and starting on pole with a slipstream, no? I just need to make sure I do a good 0-100km/h, which is the most important thing when you start on pole, just make sure you do a good jump. And from there obviously do the best I can to defend.”
Norris said: “The last few weekends, they’ve been extremely quick and quicker than us, so it’s… I don’t have the confidence to say, yes, we can just beat them on pace. Like today, not on their level.”
Verstappen was pleased to be on the front row following a difficult Friday for a variety of reasons, which restricted his running more than most. While Norris topped Q1 and Q2 it appeared to vanish when it mattered in Q3 with a messy first attempt and then failing to improve on his second.
Charles Leclerc put his Ferrari fourth five thousandths behind Norris, but on his final attempt, he stuffed a snap of oversteer through the Esses leaving him three-tenths off his teammate. Leclerc put his Ferrari just under three-tenths ahead of the two Mercedes. George Russell improving on his last attempt to go nearly three-tenths faster than teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Russell put in a brilliant performance in an older spec car after Mercedes ran out of the latest spec of parts following his crash in FP2, but h still managed to beat Hamilton who has the newer spec after he made a mistake on his final attempt.
Kevin Magnussen put his Haas seventh he was a quarter of a tenth behind Hamilton as he went six thousandths faster than Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, with Nico Hulkenberg completing the top ten. The German is exactly three-tenths behind the Williams.
Both RBs missed out on Q3, Tsunoda despite his crash went just over two hundredths faster than his teammate Liam Lawson. The Japanese driver brought out the red flag when he crashed in the slow-speed Fol Sol stadium, which denied the opportunity for his teammate to try and improve.
Also unable to improve were both Aston Martin’s, as Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll started their final attempt out came the red flag. That left Alonso over a tenth ahead of his teammate, Valtteri Bottas was the other to lose out almost half a second behind.
Piastri and Perez were the big casualties in Q1, both behind Franco Colapinto. Colapinto was nearly four hundredths faster than the McLaren, the Australian failed to reclaim his FP3-topping form and also failed to progress into the second phase of qualifying – making his life more difficult by losing a lap for track limits.
He reckoned that had he not gone beyond the Turn 12 kerb and lost a second in the process, he would have made it through.
McLaren did their first runs on medium tyres in the first session to try to save softs for later but it seems to have harpooned Piastri. The Australian said: “The medium I didn’t have much confidence on, the first soft lap I was going well and then I just went wide at Turn 12. We tried to go again but I had zero grip because the tyres were too hot. Disappointing.
Perez put his Q1 knockout at his home race down to struggling with the braking in the low-speed corners, after Leclerc knocked him out in what was a hugely competitive qualifying. In Q1 a second and a half covered all twenty-five, leaving Perez down in eighteenth, over a second off the pace.
Perez told reporters “We were just struggling too much with stopping the car,” Perez said after jumping out of the cockpit. For example into the low speed I cannot brake, I cannot stop the car, as soon as I attack the braking I start sliding, that is definitely my main issue at the moment, it’s where I’m struggling the most and I think here it shows even more, every time I tried to attack the braking I’m just locking up.”
Esteban Ocon was six thousandths behind his former teammate as he went four tenths faster than Guanyu Zhou.
Related
- MEXICO CITY GP – Oscar Piastri leads McLaren one-two going six hundredths faster than Lando Norris in third practice
- MEXICO CITY GP – Carlos Sainz two-tenths ahead of Oscar Piastri in second practice
- MEXICO CITY GP – George Russell three tenths faster than Carlos Sainz in first practice, as Alex Albon and Ollie Bearman collide
- Welcome to the Mexico City Grand Prix