Bottas seizes pole in Mexico, Hamilton P2 for Mercedes front row lockout; Verstappen P3 as Silver Arrows’ pace surprises Red Bull
Despite looking faster than their key rivals during all the practices and the early qualifying rounds for tomorrow’s Mexico City Grand Prix, Red Bull was bested by their nemesis Mercedes when it mattered most during Saturday qualifying. Valtteri Bottas, who has ironically driven better than ever since being told by the team that his serviced would no longer be required in 2022, put his Silver Arrow on pole position in the thin and very warm air of the high-altitude Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. Bottas was the only man to set a sub-sixteen second lap on the day, besting his more heralded teammate Lewis Hamilton by a fairly sizable .145-seconds. Better still for the Mercedes factory team, they locked out the front row and relegated the formidable Red Bull of Max Verstappen to P3. The Dutch points leader was not helped when he was forced to lift on his final effort due to a contretemps just up the road between his teammate Sergio Perez and the AlphaTauri of rookie Yuki Tsunoda as time expired in Q3. The hometown hero Perez’s lap, and his attempt to become the first Mexican to claim pole at his home GP, was completely ruined but his earlier fast lap was still good enough for P4, where he will be in the best possible position to help Verstappen get back on terms with the fleet Mercedes duo in general and his arch-rival Hamilton in particular.
Behind that fast four, the second AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly was mighty impressive and qualified P5, while teammate Tsunoda had to settle for P9 after his off that balked Perez’s final charge. Carlos Sainz headed his Ferrari stablemate Charles Leclerc P6 to P8 and McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo did the same to his teammate Lando Norris, P7 to P10.
Top 10 qualifiers for the Mexico City GP:
| POS | DRIVER | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1:16.727 | 1:16.864 | 1:15.875 | |
| 2 | 1:17.207 | 1:16.474 | 1:16.020 | |
| 3 | 1:16.788 | 1:16.483 | 1:16.225 | |
| 4 | 1:17.003 | 1:17.055 | 1:16.342 | |
| 5 | 1:16.908 | 1:16.955 | 1:16.456 | |
| 6 | 1:17.517 | 1:17.248 | 1:16.761 | |
| 7 | 1:17.719 | 1:17.092 | 1:16.763 | |
| 8 | 1:16.748 | 1:17.034 | 1:16.837 | |
| 9 | 1:17.330 | 1:16.701 | 1:17.158 | |
| 10 | 1:17.569 | 1:17.473 | 1:36.830 |
Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.
Tomorrow’s race airs live beginning at 2PM Eastern on ABC here in the States. With only five races to go in 2021 and Verstappen’s lead over Hamilton a thin twelve points, maximizing performance and keeping it clean in Mexico City will be key for the two top title contenders. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!