Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB15 Qualifying, Formula 1 Gran Premio De Mexico 2019, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico City, Mexico. Image credit to LAT Sutton Images.
Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen claimed pole position for tomorrow’s Mexican GP as Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas crashed out preventing further improvements in the final flying laps.
Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB15 Qualifying, Formula 1 Gran Premio De Mexico 2019, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico City, Mexico. Image credit to LAT Sutton Images.
Verstappen took provisional pole on his initial Q3 run setting a 1:14.910 with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc 0.114 seconds off and Sebastian Vettel a further 0.260 adrift of the Dutchman.
On the final hot laps, Verstappen then improved his benchmark to a 1:14.758 to secure pole position -although his first flyer was enough to keep first spot, the Red Bull driver completed his lap after Bottas’ huge shunt at the last corner, which brought out double-waved yellows.
Leclerc held onto second place with Ferrari team-mate Vettel behind in third with both relying on their first-timed runs to keep their spots on the grid after backing off for yellow flags.
Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton made a slight improvement on his final flyer to ensure fourth place with the championship leader 0.504 adrift of Verstappen.
The other Red Bull of Alexander Albon took fifth place and was 0.580 seconds off his team-mate’s pole lap with the aforementioned Bottas taking sixth,
Valtteri Bottas, #77 Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+, suffers a huge shunt during Q3 in Qualifying at the Formula 1 Gran Premio De Mexico 2019, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Mexico City, Mexico. Image credit to Formula 1.
Bottas wound up 0.002 seconds adrift of Albon with the Finn was on course to improving his time when he slammed the outside wall in the left hand final corner on his last hot lap.
The rear of the F1 W10 EQ Power+ stepped out on Bottas and sent him into the wall, which he slid along before coming to a halt against the edge of the tec-pro barrier closer to the exit of the corner.
Although the medical car was deployed due to the massive impact, Bottas reported he was ok but was winded.
All the top six runners will begin on the yellow-branded C3 medium compounds.
McLaren’s Carlos Sainz qualified best of the rest in seventh place and three-tenths quicker than team-mate Lando Norris who was eighth and the Toro Rosso pairing of Daniil Kvyat and Pierre Gasly who completed the top ten.
Racing Point’s Sergio Perez missed out on a Q3 appearance by eight thousandths of a second to qualify 11th for his home Grand Prix and ahead of Renault duo Nico Hulkenberg and Daniel Ricciardo who took 12th and 13th.
Kvyat and Ricciardo however are currently under investigation by the stewards for an unsafe release by the former as they were heading towards the pit-lane exit.
Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi qualified 14th and 15th respectively.
Racing Point’s Lance Stroll was the quickest of the Q1 eliminatees taking 16th and in-front of Haas F1 Team pairing Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean who qualified 17th and 18th respectively.
The two ROKiT Williams Racing FW42’s of George Russell and Robert Kubica brought up at the rear.
The Top Three
Pole Position – Max Verstappan, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB15:Â “For us to come back like this and take pole position – thank you to the team. Secretly you always hope, you keep pushing and in Q3 it all came together.”
2nd – Charles Leclerc, #16, Scuderia Ferrari, SF90:Â “The first lap was good, the second one – I lost the rear. But Red Bull was very quick. The race is still long tomorrow…”
3rd – Sebastian Vettel, #5, Scuderia Ferrari, SF90:Â “I had a mistake on my first run, I was confident on my second run I could make up for it but with the double yellow I had to slow down.”
Earlier in Free Practice 3, Leclerc lead a Ferrari one-two from team-mate Vettel, Mercedes’ pairing Bottas and Hamilton with McLaren’s Sainz rounding out the top five.
You can catch up on Free Practice 2 & 1, F1 Newsbites – Mexican GP Edition as well as this weekend’s race preview right here at the following links:
