Valtteri Bottas has beaten his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton by just under a tenth and a half to take pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix. There appeared to be little between Mercedes and Red Bull this weekend as the gap and pace appeared to have closed between the two teams.
This weekend Red Bull were expected to have the edge over Mercedes, but the gap appeared to shift in Q2 towards the German manufacturer. There will be close battles between the two in the race, Max Verstappen going third fastest three and a half tenths behind Bottas while his teammate Sergio Perez was over a tenth behind.
Both of Bottas’s laps in Q3 were faster than Hamilton, the three and a half tenth gap to Red Bull surprising as Verstappen had been the favourite for pole. As well as coming across Yuki Tsunoda, the Dutchman struggled to find grip on his final run. Mercedes will be looking to claw back ground to Red Bull in both the drivers and constructors.
Bottas said: “It was an awesome lap, especially my lap first lap in Q3. Honestly, it was one of my best laps and it’s a good feeling.” The Finn admitted he had “definitely surprised myself – we seemed to be off Red Bull but we managed to perfect the set-up”.
Hamilton congratulated Bottas on an “awesome job” and the seven-time champion said he could not have matched his teammate’s time.
Adding “We have generally been behind by half a second. We have been working away at the car but they have generally got higher downforce, so we have struggled in certain parts so it’s a real surprise to see us on the front row.”
Verstappen said, “We seemed to struggle to get the tyres right. The first run was terrible. I knew there was something more available if we could get it right. There was definitely a chance to beat Valtteri’s time. It’s not a great place to finish after being so competitive all weekend”
Tomorrow’s race could be a close one between Mercedes and Red Bull, but Mercedes are looking to stop Red Bull from taking a third consecutive win. As the circuit evolved it appeared to make the Mercedes faster, allowing them to come back at Red Bull on their first runs in Q3.
Verstappen had topped all three practice sessions, but the turnaround in performance by Mercedes was never to be underestimated. Hamilton admitted he didn’t think that Mercedes had the pace to challenge Red Bull, and was surprised to find the pace in qualifying.
Perez had tried to help Verstappen to pole, but that didn’t help him to move onto the front row as his rear end got away from him. They were also forced to back off in the middle sector when Yuki Tsunoda went off through Turn Ten, Verstappen then went on to lock up in Fol Sol Stadium.
The long run down to Turn One could present a lot of opportunities for overtaking before the heavy braking point.
Red Bull also was forced to change their rear wings, which had picked up small cracks in final practice at Austin and had to be repaired ahead of qualifying there. There advantage looked to have been confirmed in FP3 when they were half a second faster but they could not get close enough, despite Verstappen looking to be fastest in Q1 and Q2.
Team principal Christian Horner believes part of Mercedes gains were down to the track improving through out qualifying.
Pierre Gasly was fifth fastest, the Alpha Tauri driver going two tenths faster than the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz. Sainz’s teammate Charles Leclerc was eighth, seven hundredths behind the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo successfully used the tow from his teammate Lando Norris to go ahead of Leclerc.
Tsunoda ended the session ninth ahead of Norris, both taking part in Q3 mainly to help their teammates with the tow as they both have back of the grid penalties for taking new power units.
Sebastian Vettel was the fastest of those knocked out in Q2, the Aston Martin driver did improve into the top ten before being shuffled out. The four-time champion was just over two tenths faster than his former teammate Kimi Raikkonen, he starts tenth.
Raikkonen has been placed under investigation for not slowing under red flags, when Lance Stroll crashed through Perltada. Stroll had already been due to start from the back of the grid, but the Canadian went a little bit wide on the entry to Perltada then lost the rear spinning into the wall.
Stroll’s crash lead to a twenty minute red flag as repairs were made to the barrier, the Canadian could now be forced to start from the pit lane.
George Russell spilt the two Alfa Romeo’s, going just over a tenth ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi. However, the Williams driver also carries grid penalties for a power unit change.
Esteban Ocon was fifteenth getting through to Q2 unlike his teammate Fernando Alonso, throughout the session track evolution proved key for all the drivers. Nicolas Latifi going seventeenth ahead of both Haas’s, Mick Schumacher eighteenth going over half a second faster than Nikita Mazepin.
