Sainz beats Verstappen to pole; Piastri and Perez out in Q1

Carlos Sainz put Ferrari on pole position for the 2024 Mexican Grand Prix, ahead of Formula 1 title contenders Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, while Sergio Perez and Oscar Piastri were both dumped out in Q1.

McLaren looked to have an edge on the field after final practice, and Norris was quickest in Q1 and Q2, but similarly to last year at Mexico City it was Ferrari that came into form at the crucial moment.

Sainz picked up an aerodynamic tow for his first Q3 lap and led a Ferrari 1-2 from Charles Leclerc by 0.360 seconds after the first runs.

Verstappen should have been between them but had his lap deleted for cutting the inside of Turn 2.

The Red Bull driver delivered his final Q3 lap cleanly, but it was only good enough for second on the grid - even before Sainz found even more time on his own final run to put the emphasis on a fine pole position.

Sainz was the only driver to lap below 1m16s, and his 1m15.946s best left him 0.225s clear of Verstappen’s Red Bull, which has battled engine and set-up problems through practice but looked more together in qualifying.

Norris had to settle for third behind his chief rival. His first Q3 lap was scruffy and his second was his best of the session, but just under a tenth down on Verstappen and only 0.005s clear of Leclerc in the second Ferrari, which looked to be struggling for rear grip towards the end of his lap.

MERCEDES LEADS THE REST

The Mercedes drivers locked out row three of the grid, with George Russell almost three tenths clear of Lewis Hamilton despite running an older specification of floor this weekend.

The Haas of Kevin Magnussen impressively topped a tight battle to be the best of the midfield runners. He was just 0.006s clear of Pierre Gasly’s Alpine, as both continued their strong form from the previous race in the United States.

Alex Albon’s Williams was top-10 fast throughout qualifying and took a well-earned ninth place on the grid, though he’ll be disappointed to have lapped slower in Q3 than he did in Q2.

The second Haas of Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top 10. He too lapped a chunk slower in Q3 than he did in Q2 and finished up three tenths down on Albon. 

ONE RB HAMPERS THE OTHER

The RBs also looked to be a potential top-10 threat in the earlier stages of qualifying, but were both bumped out of Q2 by the two Haas drivers just before Yuki Tsunoda crashed at Turn 12 after locking up and then losing control on entry.

That crash brought out red flags and left Tsunoda 11th, just ahead of team-mate Liam Lawson, the Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, and the Sauber of Valtteri Bottas, who was the main beneficiary of the underperforming McLaren and Red Bull drivers in Q1.

PIASTRI AND PEREZ’S NIGHTMARES 

Piastri topped final practice impressively for McLaren, but endured a nightmare qualifying session and exited in Q1 for the first time in 2024.

The frontrunning teams, save for Verstappen’s Red Bull, completed initial runs on medium tyres but rapid track improvement meant everyone felt the need to switch to softs, though Norris and Sainz actually set laps good enough to progress on the medium compound.

After making the switch to softs, Piastri had a 1m17.6s lap deleted for running beyond the track limits at Turn 12, a “painful” mistake he felt cost him a second on a lap that was otherwise “easily” good enough to make Q2 but for the time loss he incurred running over the kerbs - which wrecked the laptime even before it was deleted.

His subsequent effort on the same set of soft tyres was only fractionally better than that deleted effort - a 1m17.597s lap that only proved good enough for 17th on the grid, behind Franco Colapinto’s Williams, which paid the price for a moment at Turn 4 according to team boss James Vowles.

Perez’s Red Bull fared even worse. The Mexican driver was slowest of all after the initial runs, complaining to his engineer “I cannot brake for low speed” because of "putting too much energy" into the tyres.

Perez was eight tenths off team-mate Verstappen at the end of Q1 with a lap only good enough for 18th on the grid, just 0.006s quicker than Esteban Ocon’s Alpine.

Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu was slowest of all, 0.455s behind Ocon and the only driver who failed to lap quicker than 1m18s in Q1.