Sebastian Vettel will race from the pole position at the Mexican Grand Prix after he knocked out Red Bull’s Max Verstappen from the top slot in the Qualifying race on Saturday.
Verstappen came in the quickest of the lot in his first run in Q3 at 1m16.574s, but was three-tenths slower on his final try, giving away the pole to Ferrari’s Vettel who set his best at 1m16.488s.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton came in the third fastest after he lost some momentum at Turn 12 right-hander in the final sector, forcing him to go by his first run lap time.
Valtteri Bottas could not post a lap time for his first run because his car locked up at Turn 13 after overtaking Verstappen. His second attempt was good enough to get him the fourth. Verstappen is under investigation by the stewards for impeding Bottas.
Kimi Räikkönen came fifth, followed by Esteban Ocon and Daniel Ricciardo, who could not improve on his f inal lap.
Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg was eighth closely followed by his new teammate Carlos Sainz. Force India’s Sergio Perez came in 10th marking the first 10 positions.
Both the Williams drivers Williams drivers Felipe Massa and Lance Stroll posted lap times in Q2 with Massa missing Q3 by just 0.231s. Stroll was a second behind Massa getting himself 12th.
Toro Rosso’s new face Brendon Hartley made his first appearance in Q2 but could only get up to 13th due to power loss at Turn 3 during his first flying lap.
McLaren chose not to go for a full-on assault in Q2 as both their drivers are under heavy gird penalties. Alonso and Vandoorne have a 35 and 20 places penalty respectively and did a token run after opting out of the flying lap. They came in 14th and 15th.
Both the Sauber cars were the first ones to get eliminated in Q1 giving Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein 16th and 17th place, respectively.
Due to an engine problem in FP3, Pierre Gasly could not take part in the qualifying races. The Frenchman is already under a 15 place grid penalty due to a power unit change and could finish only 12 laps in the practice runs.
Mexican Grand Prix Grid position
Grid position after taking into account penalties applied forusing additional power unit elements: Vandoorne 35 places, Alonso 20 places, Gasly 15 places.
