#F1 #MexicanGP Qualifying: @Carlossainz55 storms to sixth-career pole. #MexicoGP #F1ESTA
Carlos Sainz, #55, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-24, celebrates in Parc Ferme after taking his sixth-career pole position in Qualifying at the Formula 1 Gran Premio De La Ciudad De Mexico 2024, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico City, Mexico. Image credit to Mark Thompson/Getty Images. Sainz Mexican GP Pole, 2024 Mexican GP Qualifying, Mexico City GP Qualifying, F1 Mexico Qualifying Results.
Sainz Mexican GP Pole – Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz stormed to his sixth-career pole position in a thrilling qualifying session at the Mexican GP ahead of championship leader Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Lando Norris completed the top three.
In Q3, the initial flyers saw Verstappen posted a personal best in sectors one and three with a purple sector to post a 1:16.358 to go quickest then the race officials had the Dutchman’s lap-time deleted for exceeding track limits at turn two.
Sainz posted two purples in sectors one and three to set the provisional pole time of a 1:16.055 and ended up 0.360 seconds quicker than Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc whilst Mercedes’ George Russell was a further 0.454 seconds off in third.
The final hot-laps saw Leclerc score two personal bests and could not improve on his flying lap, but behind him Sainz scored a purple sector one, a personal best in the middle sector and a yellow final sector to set a 1:15.946 to take pole position from Verstappen who scored three personal best efforts to wound up 0.171 seconds off the Spaniard as Norris took two personal bests in sectors one and three with a purple sector two to end up third and on the second row of the grid alongside Leclerc.
The two Mercedes of Russell and Sir Lewis Hamilton occupy the third row in fifth and sixth respectively and ahead of MoneyGram Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen who took an impressive seventh.
BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Pierre Gasly took a solid eighth as Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon and the other Haas VF-24 entry of Nico Hulkenberg completed the top ten.
In the second qualifying stage, which was topped by Norris, the session ended under a red flag after RB’s Yuki Tsunoda suffered a shunt into turn 12 meaning the drivers behind were unable to set one last flying lap to try and improve their efforts.
The Japanese driver lost the back end of his VCARB01 racer after a front-left lock into the turn 12 right-hander, he tried to correct it as the rear gave away spinning and hit the wall damaging his front-left and wing.
Both RB’s of the aforementioned Tsunoda and Liam Lawson ended up 11th and 12th respectively.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll along with Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas were unable to set a final flyer because of the Tsunoda crash and ended up 13th, 14th and 15th respectively.
In the opening segment, which was topped by Norris, a flurry of improvements saw Stroll send Williams’ Franco Colapinto eliminated by 0.151 seconds and will start the Mexico City Grand Prix 16th.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and home favourite Sergio Perez were the shock eliminatees in Q1 wounding up 17th and 18th respectively as the former had a flyer deleted for exceeding track limits at turn 12 and the other the Australian suffered a lock-up at turn five left-hander.
BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon and Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu brought up the rear.
You can see the full Formula 1 Gran Premio De La Ciudad De Mexico 2024 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2024/races/1248/mexico/qualifying
2024 Mexican GP Qualifying – The Top Three
2024 Mexican GP Pole Position – Carlos Sainz, #55, Scuderia Ferrari, SF-24 – 1:15.946:
“I did two great laps in Q3, and they were enough for pole, which was great as normally in Mexico it is tricky. Definitely we have done a step up, it seems like we are going in the right direction and looking forward to finishing the job tomorrow. If you win, those extra points are important for the team in the constructors’ – hopefully our race pace is good enough to win it.”
2nd Place – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB20 – +0.171s:
“Yesterday I barely did any laps, so we are playing catch up and FP3 wasn’t good. I was already under a lot of pressure and then my lap time got taken away so added more pressure. but I really didn’t expect the front row. It’s one of the hardest tracks to get right.”
3rd Place – Lando Norris, #4, McLaren Formula 1 Team-Mercedes, MCL38 – +0.314s:
“I’m pretty happy with third, I couldn’t get a lot more out of it in the last two laps. Carlos has looked quick all weekend.”
2024 F1 World Championship Standings
#F1 #MexicanGP FP3: @OscarPiastri heads @McLarenF1 one-two. #MexicoGP #FIESTA
#F1 #MexicanGP FP2: @Carlossainz55 quickest as @GeorgeRussell63 crashes. #F1 #MexicoCityGP #F1ESTA
#F1 #MexicanGP FP1: @GeorgeRussell63 quickest as #Bearman and #Albon crash.
