#MexicanGP Qualifying Report: @ValtteriBottas claims pole position. #F1

Valtteri Bottas clinched pole position in qualifying at the Mexican GP as Mercedes locked out the front-row with team-mate Lewis Hamilton second and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen third.

The other Red Bull of Sergio Perez took fourth place in-front of his home crowd, with both Red Bull drivers having their last flyers ruined when coming across AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda off the track at the turn ten run-off area.

But Red Bull, who dominated the earlier Free Practice 3 session, was already under pressure as Bottas grabbed provisional pole on his initial hot-lap posting a 1:15.875, with Hamilton 0.145 seconds behind the Finn.

Perez lead Verstappen around for the final Q3 flying tours – just as he had in the earlier stage, where Verstappen set an effort 0.350 seconds slower than Bottas’ benchmark as the championship leader struggled with a loose rear end.

Both Honda-powered RB16B entries set personal bests in sector one on their final hot-laps, but Tsunoda’s off-track moment at the rapid turn ten appeared to distract Perez, who went off as well, with Verstappen then coming across the duo and backing off expecting a yellow flag.

The Dutchman then suffered a lock-up into the stadium section and was unable to improve on his effort, whilst behind neither Mercedes driver improved, which sealed Bottas’ 19th-career pole position.

All the top ten runners ran the C3 yellow side-walled medium compounds in Q2 bar Tsunoda, which means they’ll start tomorrow’s Mexico City Grand Prix on that rubber.

Behind the top four, AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly qualified fifth and in-front of Ferrari pairing Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc in sixth and eighth respectively with McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo splitting the Prancing Horses in seventh.

Tsunoda came ninth in the second AlphaTauri AT02 entry ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris – with both teams using their drivers that will be hit with grid penalties for taking on new power-unit components to give their respective team-mates a slipstream down the main-straight for the beginning of their flying laps in Q3.

In the middle segment, Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel qualified outside the top ten in 11th and in-front of Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen who was 12th. The Finn is currently under investigation from the stewards for crossing the pit-entry line twice and doing an extra lap under the red flag.

Williams Racing’s George Russell was 13th, but will start five places back following his post-FP2 gearbox change. Although the Briton will be ahead of all the drivers that have grid penalties for the Grand Prix.

They are Tsunoda, Norris, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll and Alpine F1 Team’s Esteban Ocon.

The other two drivers eliminated in Q2 were Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Alpine F1 Team’s Ocon with the former suffering a spin at the right-hand turn 12 at the entry into the stadium section on his last hot-lap – the Alfa Romeo sliding off sideways at high-speed and hitting the barriers deep in the run-off area.

Giovinazzi was able to recover and return to the pits, ending qualifying 14th and in-front of Ocon.

In the first qualifying stage, which was interrupted by a red flag almost halfway through caused by Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll who crashed after exiting the Peraltada.

The Canadian was ending his initial Q1 flyer when he hit the throttle out of the famous final corner that ends the tour at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, but went slightly too wide, putting him on the dusty line and his AMR21 racer snapped out of control.

Stroll spun backwards into the barrier on the outside at the start of the main-straight, which destroyed his rear wing and then the front-left wheel as the Aston Martin spun around and it’s front was also knocked.

The session was stopped for almost half-an-hour as the AMR21 and it’s debris were cleared and the barriers replaced, after which Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso was the quickest of the Q1 eliminatees ending the session 16th.

Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi who was 17th, Haas F1 Team pairing Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin who were 18th and 19th respectively and the aforementioned Stroll who brought up the rear.

Latifi and Russell are also currently under investigation by the stewards for lining up alongside the Haas VF-21’s at the pit-exit at the end of the red flag period and then set off next to it’s rivals when the session went back to green running.

You can see the full Formula 1 Gran Premio De La Ciudad De Mexico 2021 Qualifying Results Classification by clicking here.

2021 Mexican GP Qualifying – The Top Three

2021 Mexican GP Pole Position – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W12 EQ Performance, 1:15.875:

“It was an awesome lap, the first run in Q3. I couldn’t quite match the same last sector in the second one but honestly that first run in Q3 was one of my best laps. Higher temperatures this afternoon than this morning came our way I think.”

2nd Place – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W12 EQ Performance, +0.145:

“Valtteri did an amazing job, I’m so proud, he’s been driving so well these last few races. We didn’t think we had the pace this weekend so to lock out the front row is something special. I’m just as shocked as everyone – but we’ll take it.”

3rd Place – Max Verstappen, #33, Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16B, +0.350:

“It seemed like throughout qualifying the balance went away a little bit. But then on the last lap it was going good and I don’t know what happened in front of me – I was expecting yellow flags so backed out of it a bit. I think this is better than starting second.”

In the earlier FP3 session it was Red Bull’s Perez topping the season ahead of team-mate Verstappen with Mercedes pairing Hamilton and Bottas following in third and fourth respectively and Ferrari’s Sainz completing the top five. You can see the full Formula 1 Gran Premio De La Ciudad De Mexico 2021 Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1103/mexico/practice-3.html

McLaren’s Norris and Alpine’s Ocon have also taken on new power-unit components and will join AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda and Aston Martin’s Stroll at the back of the grid for tomorrow’s Mexico City Grand Prix. Norris takes on a new Mercedes Internal Combustion Engine, Turbocharger and MGU-H for his MCL35M racer whilst Ocon receives a new Renault Internal Combustion Engine, Turbocharger, MGU-H, MGU-K, Energy Store, Control Electronics and Exhaust for his A521.

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