John N
After a tight battle for the pole position in Mexico City, Max Verstappen grabbed P1 after nailing his final flying lap. Here are the best facts and stats from qualifying –
- Max Verstappen grabbed his sixth pole position of the year, to be the 11th different pole-sitter in 11 Mexican Grands Prix.
- The pole-sitter here hasn’t finished on the podium since 2016.
- George Russell was second, only the second time this year he’s qualified on the front row following his pole in Hungary, although he was promoted to a P2 start at Monza by grid penalties.
- Russell out-qualifies Lewis Hamilton for the first time since the summer break by just 0.005s.
- This is the first time Mercedes has both cars in the top three this year.
- Hamilton starts third, the position from which the winner has started in the last two races at this track.
- Hamilton has yet to start on the front row this year, but he does have three top-three starts in the last four races.
- Sergio Perez starts fourth, the same position as last year.
- Carlos Sainz is fifth, his highest-ever start in Mexico City – but his worst Q3 performance since Paul Ricard eight races ago.
- Valtteri Bottas was sixth, the best Q3 performance for Alfa Romeo since Miami nearly six months ago.
- Charles Leclerc starts seventh, the first time he’s been outside the top three since Canada, 11 races ago.
- Lando Norris grabbed eighth to match his best-ever start at this track from 2019.
- Fernando Alonso was P9, having reached Q3 for the first time in his career.
- The Spaniard has taken the season qualifying head-to-head against his teammate, though, as he now leads 12-8.
- Esteban Ocon was P10, for only his second career top 10 start at this track.
- In Q2, 0.014s covered the top four, and 0.063s covered the top five.
- Daniel Ricciardo missed Q3 by just 0.053s.
- Zhou Guanyu grabbed P12 for his best Q2 performance since Hungary.
- Yuki Tsunoda out-qualified Pierre Gasly for the eighth time this year.
- Kevin Magnussen got a Haas into Q2 in Mexico for the first time in their history.
- Mick Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel set the same time in Q1.
- Vettel suffered his fifth Q1 elimination in the last eight races and has never been lower than ninth in Mexico.
- Lance Stroll was out in Q1 in Mexico for the fourth consecutive visit, suffering the fate on his 24th birthday.
- Alex Albon out-qualified Nicholas Latifi for the 17th time this year.
