Carlos Sainz scored a dramatic pole position ahead of Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix for Scuderia Ferrari.
It appeared to be another pole for Oracle Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen in Q3 early on, however, his top time was erased due to exceeding track limits. Sainz went on to lay down a quicker time of 1:15.946 seconds.
“(I’m) very happy,” Sainz said. “A great couple of laps. A lot of times around Mexico you always have the feeling like you cannot put a lap together and it’s extremely difficult with how much sliding there is, but today honestly my two laps of Q3 were pretty much identical, almost perfect.
“I just put two really solid laps in Q3, enough for pole, and I’m very happy because that’s not normally the case around Mexico with how tricky it is.”
Verstappen settled for second on the grid ahead of title rival Lando Norris in third place. Last week’s winner at Austin, Texas’, Circuit of The Americas, Charles Leclerc, posted the fourth-best lap time while George Russell and Lewis Hamilton made it an all-Mercedes third row.
Haas F-1’s Kevin Magnussen impressed with a seventh-place result in qualifying ahead of Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and the second Haas entry of Nico Hulkenberg in 10th.
It was an action-packed session with multiple shunts for drivers, including Yuki Tsunoada in Q2. He brought out the red flag to end the session and starts 11th.Â
Ahead of his 400th Formula 1 start, Fernando Alonso qualified 13th.
Q1 featured stunning exits from McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, as they’ll start 17th and 18th on Sunday.Â