Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen continued his dominant season by taking the pole ahead of Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix.
Verstappen navigated Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez at 1:17.775, ahead of the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
“To be on pole here is amazing. It was a tricky start to qualifying as the track was a bit warmer than FP3, I didn’t expect to be on pole here,” Verstappen said. “Around this track it’s hard to nail a lap and we’ve been struggling to find a good balance in the car. After practice we made quite a few adjustments and we got into a better rhythm.
“Looking ahead to tomorrow, it’s a long run into to turn one so we need a good start, I think we have a quick car and that’s what is most important. It’s incredible to see the passion of all the fans here, it will be good to have Checo (Sergio Perez) up there with me tomorrow, I hope we can have a fun race with a lot of action.”
In a weekend that bodes well for Mercedes, second-place qualifier Russell was pleased with session.
“It feels like the team deserved more today – the car has been great this weekend and it’s a testament to the hard work that has been going in for so long,” Russell said. “At this high altitude, drag is less of a factor for us on the straights, and the update we brought to Austin is performing well. We saw last week with Lewis what the car was capable of, and this weekend, it felt like pole position was there for us.
“I’m kicking myself about the final run, but at the end of the day, there are no points for qualifying and I’m excited to be back on the front row. We will be going for it in the race and our long runs looked decent yesterday, so I’m excited to go racing and see what we’ve got.”
Verstappen’s teammate Perez qualified fourth after lapping the 17-turn road course at 1:18.128.
Valtteri Bottas impressed for Alfa Romeo during the Saturday session, qualifying sixth.
The Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz had mixed results, with Sainz leading the duo in fifth, and Leclerc qualifying seventh.
Haas F1 struggled during the session, with Kevin Magnussen slotting in 15th, one spot ahead of Mick Schumacher in 16th.