Max Verstappen gave Red Bull another reason to grin on Saturday as he secured pole position for Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix with a dominant late qualifying run.
After 24 hours of debate and ridicule following the news of Red Bull’s penalties for exceeding Formula One’s $145 million cost cap last year, it was a sweet return to triumph with his sixth pole of the season and seventeenth of his career.
The 25-year-old Dutchman finished 0.304 seconds clear of George Russell and his Mercedes teammate, seven-time winner Lewis Hamilton, with a best lap time of 1min 17.775sec.
Verstappen claimed the lead on his first Q3 lap and then lowered his time to stave off the Mercedes team’s much-improved challenge. On Sunday, he will seek a record-setting 14th victory in a single season.
“That was an excellent qualifying round,” the Dutchman stated. “It was a close race, but we made some tweaks to the car and found a better rhythm, so to be in pole position here is, of course, incredible.
“It’s a long run down to Turn One, so we’ll need a good start, but I believe we have a fast vehicle, and that’s what matters most. The excitement of the spectators here is truly remarkable, and it is a thrill to drive into the stadium.”
Sergio Perez, a Red Bull teammate and local favorite, finished fourth, ahead of Carlos Sainz of Ferrari and a resurgent Valtteri Bottas of Alfa Romeo.
Verstappen expressed confidence that Perez “will be present for the fight tomorrow.”
Charles Leclerc, who crashed badly on Friday, finished eighth in the second Ferrari, ahead of Lando Norris of McLaren and Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon of Alpine.
Russell was disappointed. After running wide on the penultimate lap, he apologized over his team’s radio three times. “Today, the squad deserved more. This weekend they constructed a fantastic car, and it felt like we had the pole position, but I performed a poor last lap.”
Hamilton, who had hoped for a better outcome, was philosophical.
This is our best qualifying performance of the year. It merely demonstrates that perseverance and refusal to give up can pay dividends. It’s a long way to Turn One from where I am now.”
Many leading teams responded harshly to Red Bull’s $7 million penalties and 10 percent reduction in allowable aerodynamic research for last year’s overspending.
Ferrari stated that they were “very dissatisfied,” Mercedes stated that Christian Horner’s description of his team’s sentence as “draconian” was “an exaggeration,” and McLaren stated that the sanction was “not severe enough.”
Home hero Perez
When qualifying began at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, the air temperature was 25 degrees Celsius and the track temperature was 49, creating near-perfect conditions.
Hamilton maintained Mercedes’ much-improved form in the thin atmosphere at 2,200 meters altitude during the opening Q1 session by setting the fastest timings ahead of Verstappen and Leclerc.
Sebastian Vettel, a four-time world champion, was among those removed.
Mercedes had made consistent progress throughout the season, and the Russell-Hamilton one-two was the team’s best session performance of the year.
Hamilton, with a time of 1:18.552, claimed the lead by 0.013 seconds over Russell, with the duo ahead of Bottas and Verstappen on their initial laps, before Perez appeared to a roar from the sold-out crowd.
They chanted “Checo, Checo” as he finished third on new soft tires.
On his second run, Verstappen reclaimed third, but was demoted a position due to Sainz taking second and separating Ferrari’s “silver arrows.”
Daniel Ricciardo of McLaren, Zhou Guayyu of Alfa Romeo, Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly, and Kevin Magnussen were eliminated from the top-ten shootout at the checkered flag.
The top five were separated by less than a tenth of a second, and the top four by just 0.014 seconds – a clear indication of a close battle for pole position to come when Perez entered Q3 early.
His 1:18.153 was swiftly beaten by Verstappen in 1:17.947 with a sensational lap that was unmatched on the first runs as Hamilton’s best lap, in 1:18.094, was deleted for exceeding track limits on the kerb at Turn Three.