MEXICO CITY GP – Max Verstappen edges out the Mercedes by three-tenths to take pole, as George Russell slips up

Testing & Race Reports
Jack
29-10-2022

Max Verstappen has beaten George Russell by three-tenths of a second to take pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix. The Dutchman set a 17.175 on the soft tyres as Russell saw his fasted time deleted after he went a little bit too wide through the Foro Sol, he seemed frustrated to not take his second pole position.

The Dutchman’s more cautious approach through the early stages of the lap paid off, as his stronger final sector performance put him ahead of the Silver Arrows after their first runs. Verstappen’s pole shouldn’t be

He unleashed the Red Bull on his final run and moved ahead of both Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton once more faded to finish three-tenths back from the leading time in third. That allowed Verstappen to take his sixth pole of the season as he seeks to break Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel’s thirteen wins in a season, as well as passing Jim Clark to take four wins in Mexico, if he wins the race.

Hamilton put his Mercedes third five hundredths behind his teammate, he also had a lap deleted during Q3 for track limits. This weekend has been one of the most competitive sessions for Mercedes and the season, often defined across the whole field by hundredths of a second.

Both the Mercedes drivers lost out in Q3, Russell making a mistake with Hamilton having exceeded track limits. But Russell could be in the best place to lead into Turn One as second in recent years has tended to get the better start.

Mercedes looked like they may have a chance to take for themselves what would have been only their second pole of the year after Russell’s in Hungary, and the first in the dry. The German manufacturer will be hoping the fact they have had a better race car all season ends their winless drought dating back to Qatar last November.

Russell said “The team deserved more today. They have produced a really great car this weekend. I feel like it was our pole to have and it was just a terrible lap from my side. Nevertheless, excited to be back on the front row.”

Hamilton will be looking to get the slipstream at the start to continue his record of winning at least one Grand Prix in every season he has raced in. The Englishman had topped Q1 and Q2, with him putting the performance down to the upgrade in Austin and the high altitude in Mexico City which means that drag is less of a factor.

However, Mercedes have undoubtedly enjoyed their best Friday and Saturday of the season, and having two cars behind the Red Bull will give them hope of sealing a first victory of the year.

Sergio Perez was fourth fastest going two-tenths ahead of Carlos Sainz, with Valtteri Bottas as the Alfa Romeo driver split the two Ferrari’s. Perez had topped Q3 following the first runs, but then the Mexican couldn’t improve enough to challenge Verstappen, Russell and Hamilton.

Bottas seemed to have found a sweet spot this weekend where the car has been performing at its best, that put him a tenth and a half ahead of Charles Leclerc. Like his teammate, Sainz both Ferrari’s were unable to improve by enough on their final runs to improve their positions.

Ferrari have looked all over the place this weekend, Leclerc crashed in FP2 through the Esses and in qualifying Sainz also has wobbles through that section. This rasies more questions for the team about where their speed has gone, as their challenge to Verstappen disappeared several races ago.

That could also be a circuit specific issue because of the high altitude in Mexico City, the team will need to understand the issues looking towards the next race at Interlagos, the second highest circuit of the season.

Sainz said: “It was a fight. A clear fight. I don’t know if we haven’t nailed the set-up or we just got it wrong with tyres or the altitude is affecting us a bit too much, but it’s clear the car is not as competitive over one lap as in other grands prix.”

Leclerc also revealed his drivability issue was because the engine not responding to his throttle inputs. he said “If we can fix that. I am sure we can have a good result.”

This weekend Alfa Romeo has brought a new floor in the latest raft of updates which they started to bring in Suzuka, Bottas was close throughout and took sixth his best qualifying since the opening race in Bahrain.

Lando Norris put his McLaren eighth fastest as he went two-tenths ahead of Fernando Alonso, with the Spaniards Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon rounding out the top ten.

Daniel Ricciardo was the fastest driver to be knocked out in Q2, he was the only driver not to improve on his last run missing the cut for Q3 by five thousandths. Ricciardo was a tenth and a half ahead of Guanyu Zhou, as the two Alpha Tauri both struggled for grip. Yuki Tsunoda going nine hundredths ahead of Pierre Gasly, who also struggles with getting a clean run.

Kevin Magnussen was fifteenth but the Haas driver will take a five place grid penalty after the team had to fix a sixth ICE after his car, which was being driven by Pietro Fittipaldi at the time, ground to a halt in FP1

Mick Schumacher was knocked out after Zhou improved on his final run, and he had his fastest time which was easily good enough to Q2 but was caught out by track limits with the time being deleted. Schumacher’s time was identical to Sebastian Vettel’s but he starts ahead having set the time first.

Vettel was a tenth faster than his Aston Martin teammate Lance Stroll, but the Canadian will start last following his collision on the opening lap in Austin with Alonso.

Alex Albon was four tenths ahead of his Williams teammate Nicolas Latifi, the Canadian was the only driver not to improve on his last run. He went off through Turn Eight having to correct a slide from the rear axle at the previous corner.

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