Ferrari lock out front row in Mexico City with surprise qualifying pace — Leclerc on pole, Sainz P2; Verstappen only good enough for P3: Norris bounced in Q1

In a bit of a Saturday surprise, Ferrari found unexpected pace during the final qualifying session at the high altitude and quite technical Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, with Charles Leclerc laying down a blistering lap midway through Q3 that stood all other subsequent challenges to earn the Monegasque pole position for Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix. His Scuderia stablemate Carlos Sainz was just a tick behind him in P2 and, to the surprise of F1 fans everywhere, as well as team Ferrari themselves, Red Bull’s peerless Max Verstappen could never close the gap to the Prancing Horses and had to settle for an uncharacteristic P3. Once again, it remains to be seen whether Ferrari can turn their one lap speed into race victory when confronted by what has been the outright superior long run pace of the Red Bull in Verstappen’s championship hands. But with hometown hero Sergio Perez only able to qualify his RB19 in P5, Ferrari have the ostensible advantage in the team game to try and thwart what is sure to be an aggressive challenge by Verstappen come Sunday.

Splitting the Red Bulls in another massive surprise was the AlphaTauri of Daniel Ricciardo. The affable Aussie, who missed several races with a fractured hand and hasn’t looked up to his old standard in the races he had driven after sitting out last year, managed to hustle his ride all the way to the fourth fastest lap in Q3. Starting from P4, Ricciardo might be asked to help out Verstappen and Perez come race day, as AlphaTauri are Red Bull’s sister team. But one has to hope that Ricciardo will be free to fly to see if can earn his own honors against the big boys at the front like in his glory days with Red Bull. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton got as much as he could out of his Silver Arrow with a P6 time, while George Russell could only manage P8, a sign that the W14 is having real problems dealing with the thinner air at this high altitude circuit. Oliver Piastri slotted his McLaren behind Hamilton in P7 but was the lone McLaren to make it into the top ten due to teammate Lando Norris getting unceremoniously bounced out in Q1 after botching his hot laps and the team then botching their strategy in getting him out for a final flier before time expired on the young Briton. After taking an impressive P2 in the US Grand Prix at COTA a week ago, Norris will have it all to do to even score starting from way down in P19 here in Mexico.

The two Ferrari-engined Alfa Romeos of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu also found a little something extra at altitude, with Bottas setting a final time good enough for P9 and Zhou content to save tires for the race and run only a few desultory laps en route to the tenth fastest time of Q3. Alfa Romeo’s success in quali came at the expense of Aston Martin and Alpine, with Aston’s Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll knocked out in Q2 and Q1 respectively and Alpine’s and Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon following that exact suit.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Mexico City GP:

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Sunday’s race airs live on ABC beginning at 4PM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out if Ferrari can convert their strong starting position into a win over Verstappen and Red Bull amidst the thin air and demanding challenges of Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez!