Carlos Sainz powered to his sixth career pole position beating Max Verstappen and Lando Norris by more than two tenths of a second to claim top spot on the grid for the 2024 FIA Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix. At the other end of the timesheet, though, there were shock Q1 exits for McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and for home hero Sergio Pérez.
“A great couple of laps,” said Sainz of his final runs at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. “A lot of times around Mexico you always have the feeling like you cannot put a lap together and it's extremely difficult with how much sliding there is. But today, honestly, my two laps of Q3 were pretty much identical, almost perfect. And yeah, I just put two really solid laps in Q3, enough for pole.”
Earlier at the start of Q1, there was drama in the closing moments when Piastri and Pérez were both dumped out of the session. For Pérez the issue was a lack of confidence under braking and ahead of the final runs the Mexican found himself rooted to the bottom of the timesheet. In normal circumstances, a final run would have provided the platform for a vault to safety, but this time Pérez failed to make the jump and he exited in P18.
Piastri, meanwhile, had a late lap time deleted and then, during a last-ditch final flyer, the Australian made a mistake on his final run, taking too much kerb in Turn 12, It was an error the McLaren driver said cost him “a second” of time and he was ruled out in P17.
At the top of the timesheet, Norris looked to have pace in hand as he beat Sainz and Verstappen by almost three tenths of a second. And the McLaren driver carried that good form into Q2. He again went quickest, this time eclipsing Verstappen and Sainz by two tenths, with Charles Leclerc fourth ahead of the Mercedes cars of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Behind them, in the final seconds of the session, Yuki Tsunoda lost control of his RB and the Japanese driver spun into the barriers. The crash brought out the red flags and the clutch of drivers behind Tsunoda were all denied a final run.
It meant that Tsunoda exited in P11, but his crash also denied 12th placed team-mate Liam Lawson another attempt and the New Zealander dropped out ahead of fellow hopefuls Fernando Alonso, Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas.
At the start of Q3 Verstappen went out on track early and the Dutchman posted a good time of 1:16.368. However, within moments the Red Bull driver’s lap was deleted for going beyond track limits in Turn 2 and he dropped to P10. Norris, meanwhile, had a poor opening and ahead of the final runs he sat in fifth. Sainz though was on fire and the Spaniard took provisional pole with a lap of 1:16.055, a sizeable 0.360s ahead of Leclerc, Russell and Hamilton
Verstappen went late at the end of Q3 but though the Dutchman found an improvement and crossed the line in 1:16.171 it wasn’t enough to deny Sainz who took a superb pole as the only man to dip below 1m16s with his P1 time of 1:15.946. Norris also improved, but with the McLaren driver later saying he had found the limit of his car in Q1 and Q2, he had to settle for third.
Leclerc, who suffered a snap of oversteer on his final lap, was left with fourth ahead of Russell and Hamilton, while Kevin Magnussen is set to start seventh for Haas ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Williams’ Alex Albon and the second Haas of Nico Hülkenberg.
2024 FIA Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix – Qualifying
1 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:15.946 - -
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:16.171 0.225
3 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:16.260 0.314
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:16.265 0.319
5 George Russell Mercedes 1:16.356 0.410
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:16.651 0.705
7 Kevin Magnussen Haas/Ferrari 1:16.886 0.940
8 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:16.892 0.946
9 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:17.065 1.119
10 Nico Hülkenberg Haas/Ferrari 1:17.365 1.419
11 Yuki Tsunoda RB/Honda RBPT 1:17.129 1.183
12 Liam Lawson RB/Honda RBPT 1:17.162 1.216
13 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:17.168 1.222
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:17.294 1.348
15 Valtteri Bottas Sauber/Ferrari 1:17.817 1.871
16 Franco Colapinto Williams/Mercedes 1:17.558 1.612
17 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:17.597 1.651
18 Sergio Pérez Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:17.611 1.665
19 Esteban Ocon Alpine/Renault 1:17.617 1.671
20 Zhou Guanyu Sauber/Ferrari 1:18.072 2.126
