After getting his sixth pole of the season and nineteenth of his career, on Sunday Verstappen will start ahead of Britain’s George Russell of Mercedes, second on the starting grid.
“It was a so-so lap from me, but the points are tomorrow,” Russell said.
The also British Lewis Hamilton, the other Mercedes driver, was in third position and will share the second starting line with the Mexican Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez, from Red Bull, who was fourth.
At the beginning of qualifying, the thermometer showed a temperature of 24 degrees Celsius in the environment, but on the asphalt of the circuit it was 49.5 degrees. Hamilton led the first ‘qualy’ with a time of 1:19.169.
The Germans Mick Schumacher (Haas) and Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), the Canadian Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), the Thai Alexander Albon (Williams) and the Canadian Nicholas Latifi (Williams) were eliminated.
Hamilton remained at the forefront in the second ‘qualy’ with a time of 1:18.552 and the Australian Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren), the Chinese Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo), the Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), the French Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) and Dane Kevin Magnussen (Haas).
It looked like the seven-time world champion would take the top spot for Sunday’s race, but his times were wiped out by exceeding the limits. Hamilton managed to regain third place, but Verstappen had already set an unbeatable time.
“Naturally the Red Bulls are extremely fast, but I’m very proud of our team, it’s the best qualifying we’ve had all year,” said Hamilton. “We have to see how we get to the first corner and then apply the strategy.”
After being relegated to fourth place, ‘Checo’ Pérez lamented his result: “it’s a shame, I think we could have fought for pole position today; I had an electrical problem throughout the session, we had to change an electrical box and we lost connection; I was almost left out in Q1 and in Q2”.
Ferrari drivers Carlos Sainz of Spain and Charles Leclerc of Monegasque finished fifth and seventh in the standings, respectively.
The Mexican Grand Prix race, number 20 of 22 in the series, will take place this Sunday starting at 5 p.m. in Argentina.
Source: Ambito
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