Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz confirmed his great form during the Mexican GP weekend by achieving the pole position with a time of 1:15.946. This time was a quarter of a second faster than Verstappen’s in second.
Despite the strong performance of the Spanish driver, Norris’ Q1 and Q2 lead were stunned in the final moments of the qualifying.
A long back straight before Turn 1, helped by a powerful slipstream, sets ‘Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez Circuit’ as the unwanted place to be in for the pole position for Sunday’s Mexican GP.
Sainz will have a ‘slipstream threat’ from Max Verstappen and Lando Norris in 2nd and 3rd respectively.
The first qualifying session saw a major shakeup with 8 different teams setting their fastest lap time within the Top 10
Another important piece of news from Q1 is based on the two surprising eliminations early on: Oscar Piastri, the fastest driver from FP3, and local hero Sergio Perez, who were both knocked out in Q1.
The latter’s knock-out would without a doubt prolong rumors of an early F1 exit for the Mexican driver.
Piastri struggled to post a valid lap time, with several attempts invalidated due to track limit violations. Meanwhile, Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, an unexpected duo in terms of the weekend’s pace, set the initial pace for the Mexican GP qualifying.
Piastri’s inability to set a valid lap time in Q1 has been transferred onto Leclerc in Q2.
The Monegasque driver pulled himself back into the safe zone and final qualifying round after he set a flyer of a lap that put him in 4th place ultimately.
The main championship contenders (Verstappen and Norris) replicated a result of a Q1 session albeit Norris was 2-tenths quicker than the reigning 3-time world champion.
The Q2 session prematurely ended with 10 seconds on the clock after Yuki Tsunoda binned his RB heading into ‘Stadium Section’.
RB’s driver hit brakes and let in the slippery Turn 12 which promptly led to a half-spin which ended with the rear of the RB’s car into tech-pro barriers.
Limited time within the FW 46′ cockpit throughout the racing weekend did not matter for Alexander Albon who set 7th quickest time progressing into the final round in progress.
The final 12 minutes of the qualifying started with the two quickest drivers in the first two sessions. Verstappen survived Norris’ first attack by being more than half a second quicker than Norris.
Sainz continued with a strong performance throughout the weekend settling down in first place ahead of his teammate Leclerc once Verstappen’s time got deleted due to corner-cutting in turn 2.
After the first round of the flying lap, Ferrari and Mercedes locked the first two grid rows.
Sainz improved on his first flying lap time with a one-tenth quicker lap time, moving ahead of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris in third place. Mercedes’ settled down as the ‘best of the rest’ in 5th and 6th.