Verstappen beats Mercedes pair to Mexican GP pole

Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen stayed safely clear of a surprise Mercedes challenge to take pole for the Mexican Grand Prix.

Mercedes had been 1-2 in final practice then topped both Q1 and Q2 with Lewis Hamilton.

Q2 had been extraordinarily close – just 0.063 seconds covering the top five – but Verstappen raised the bar in Q3.

He was helped by the final segment being a messy one for Mercedes. Hamilton had his first flying lap, which was only good for third at that point anyway, deleted for a track limits breach, while George Russell made an error on his last lap.

Q1: P1
Q2: P1
Q3: P10 (so far)

Hamilton loses his first Q3 time for missing the apex at Turn 2#MexicoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/6465pxXeys

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 29, 2022

That meant Verstappen’s 1m17.775s for Red Bull gave him pole by 0.304s over Russell and 0.309s over Hamilton.

Home hero Sergio Perez wasn’t a pole threat and starts fourth.

Ferrari struggled throughout, with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc only fifth and seventh, split by Valtteri Bottas’s Alfa Romeo.

Bottas’s position wasn’t just down to Ferrari underperformance – he’d been a brilliant fourth in Q1 and sixth in Q2 too.

Lando Norris’s McLaren and the Alpines of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon completed the top 10.

Daniel Ricciardo was just 0.053s shy of joining McLaren team-mate Norris in Q3 as he qualified 11th ahead of Zhou Guanyu – who couldn’t match team-mate Bottas’s heroics – and the AlphaTauris.

Mick Schumacher had a lap comfortably good enough for Q2 deleted over a track limits infringement, though he’ll still start 15th when Haas team-mate Kevin Magnussen’s five-place penalty for engine component changes is applied.

Aston Martin had struggled all day and couldn’t get either car beyond Q1, qualifying ahead of only the two Williams.

Qualifying Results