Valtteri Bottas took a surprise pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton was second in a Mercedes front-row lockout. Max Verstappen was third and Sergio Perez fourth, as Red Bull overhauled.
As usual, the five slowest drivers were eliminated from qualifying early after 18 minutes, as Lance Stroll crashed out at the start of Q1 to bring out the red flags. Stroll was already due to start at the back of the grid due to an engine penalty, although he may well find himself starting from the pit-lane if he needs a new chassis.
Immediate concern for Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz on his out lap back out of the pits after the restart: his race engineer says the power is on its way, but the Spaniard says nothing is happening. But there indeed now is some power: he was told to put it into neutral and from there it seems to have found some life. No problems for Carlos as after that, as he moved comfortably clear of the drop zone and up to fifth, eight tenths off Max Verstappen, with Charles also far from the Q1 drop. Fernando Alonso, Nicholas Latifi, Mick Schumacher, Nikita Mazepin and Lance Stroll were eliminated in Q1.
Unsurprisingly, it was the medium tyre pretty much all round in Q2 to start the segment as drivers looked to start tomorrow’s race on that rubber. Good laps from Charles and Carlos as they make it through to Q3, despite the fact that the Spanish driver initially reported some engine problems, which were soled as Ferrari informed him to put it into neutral. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo), George Russell (Williams), Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo) and Esteban Ocon (Alpine) were knocked out in Q2.
12 minutes then remained to find the Mexico City GP polesitter. No particular problems for Charles and Carlos in their fast laps of Q3, but still the Ferrari drivers were not able to get close to Pierre Gasly’s lap times, as the AlphaTauri finished in fifth place, very close to Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. Carlos Sainz finished in sixth place (+0.886 from Valtteri Bottas’ best lap time), with Charles Leclerc in P8 (+0.962).
Mexican Grand Prix – Here are the complete results from qualifying ahead of tomorrow’s 2021 F1 World Championship race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Results (Classification):
Q3
Valtteri Bottas Mercedes -1:15.875
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.145
Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing +0.350
Sergio Perez Red Bull Racing +0.467
Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +0.581
Carlos Sainz Scuderia Ferrari +0.886
Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +0.888
Charles Leclerc Scuderia Ferrari +0.962
Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +1.283
Lando Norris McLaren +20.955
Leave a Reply