Sainz enjoys faultless qualifying to take pole in Mexico
Ferrari's Carlos Sainz has been on form thus far in Mexico and he underlined this by taking pole position for the Mexican Grand Prix. Max Verstappen took second, heading Championship contenders Norris and Leclerc.
With traffic often a problem at Mexico most drivers went out early to have some time left in case something unexpected would happen. Most went out on the soft tyres immediately except for the Mercedes and Ferrari drivers as they opted for the medium compound Pirellis. At McLaren they opted to split strategies in this early stage and send out Piastri on the medium as well whereas Norris was able to easily go quickest early on.
Verstappen only completed his first lap a few minutes later and easily did better with three purple sectors. Sainz slotted into third on medium tyres, followed by the Williams duo, Hamilton, Leclerc, Russell and the two Aston Martins. Both Astons improved halfway into the session to move up into fourth and fifth, soon followed by Tsunoda who went third fastest. Hulkenberg did better still and moved up into second place with slighthly more than 7 minutes remaining.
At the same time, Piastri sat 19th but went out on track to improve while Perez was dead last and in the pits. So was Verstappen, but he was still topping the timesheet despite improvements across the competitors.
With 4 minutes remaining Norris got the better of Verstappen, completing another run on softs to go half a second faster than his Championship rival.
With two minutes left Piastri improved but only up into 14th. Perez meanwhile was in the same trouble and improved but only to 15th. In the dying seconds Ocon improved as well with three personal best sectors but he did not manage to improve, meaning elimination from qualifying along with Colapino, Piastri, home hero Perez and Zhou.
The second part of qualifying saw an early start as well with Verstappen this time out early to set a banker lap. It remained unbeaten until Norris improved on that in his own first flying lap slightly before the halfway point of the session.
Russell and Hamilton slotted into second and third with Sainz behind them. Charles Leclerc meanwhile was a bit lost and first had a moment through the quick corners of S2 followed by a deleted laptime for curring too much of the chicane that is Turn 2, 3 and 4. The Ferrari driver made up for it with a new set of tyres, improving to third but quickly relegated to fourth after Sainz improved as well.
With 30 seconds left both Haas drivers improved to go through and as Tsunoda then parked his car in the tyre barriers, Alonso, Stroll and Bottas were all unable to complete they flying laps, leaving them stuck in 13th, 14th and 15th, thus eliminated along with the Racing Bulls.
In the final session Verstappen was again out as one of the first. The Dutchman was out on a mission and set a time that almost nobody could match. Leclerc came very close but Sainz was the only one to beat the time. As the Mercedes duo slotted behind the Ferrari of Leclerc, Verstappen's time was deleted due to cutting the chicane at Turn 2.
As is usually the case everybody set about to do a second set on fresh tyres. Leclerc was out first but remained second. Sainz shaved off another tenth to seal pole position. Norris just behind him on track improved to third while the Mercedes failed to make improvements on their second outing, leaving them 5th and 6th.
Carlos Sainz underlined his form here in Mexico with strong laps, first in final practice and now in qualifying, properly outshining everybody. For the championship battle, the result isn't all that great with Verstappen in a strong position to increase his lead.
