After the third training session, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner felt beads of sweat on his face. The Mexican Sergio Pérez (32) had his over 100,000 compatriots with the best time in ecstasy – or 0.193 seconds faster than teammate and World Cup leader Max Verstappen (24).
After qualifying, the British bull boss relaxed a little. No, it actually looked serious. Because the Dutchman wanted his 10th pole position – and has to start third from the second row next to Pérez on Sunday (8 p.m., TV live).
Tsunoda irritates Pérez
At the last minute, all cop plans failed. Pérez should have offered Verstappen slipstream, but was irritated by Tsunoda in the Alpha Tauri and had to go off the track. Max immediately raved on the radio: “What’s this nonsense?” Little did he know that his partner hadn’t made a mistake.
All the same. In the end, the two Mercedes celebrated a double victory: Bottas 0.15 ahead of Hamilton. The Briton was delighted: “A great job from Valtteri. But we still don’t know why we’re on the front row. Before qualifying, we always lost up to half a second to Red Bull. And now we suddenly have a chance. “
Hamilton, 12 points behind Verstappen, naturally hopes that he can get past the Finn at the start of the 71 laps.
Qualification starts with a bang
And what about Red Bull now? Horner: “Now it’s getting really complicated, and a possible stable order is not an issue for us at the moment.” What if Pérez curves around in front of Verstappen? Horner: “If it is about victory, then it will be brutal. We can’t take the home win from Checo. And otherwise we might not leave the route alive! “
The qualification had started with a bang: Stroll lost his Aston Martin shortly after the last corner on the home straight.
The damage to the boundary walls was so great that the repair work took almost half an hour. Then it went on for the last eleven minutes in the first qualifying part …
Kimi still has to go to the FIA
The red carpet had already been laid out for Alfa-Sauber. Stroll, Tsunoda, Ocon and Norris have to go all the way back with their cars, as well as Russell (gearbox) – five places back. But Raikkonen (starting position 10) and Giovinazzi (starting position 11) should have benefited more, but did not reach the top ten hunt.
The Finn still has to go to the FIA because he behaved incorrectly when entering the pit. And Giovinazzi? He let his car crash against the pit walls again.
The starting grid
The results of the Mexico qualifying
The clean votes
Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal: “Having both cars in Q2 is a positive result and gives us confidence for the race. We’re starting just outside the top ten and have a free choice of tires, and we’re in a good position to have a big battle for points. The long straight up to the first corner will be decisive. We have to create a good starting position in the early stages and take every opportunity we have. We’ve been knocking on the door for points in every race lately, so let’s do everything we can to finish the job here. “
Kimi Raikkonen (12th / starting position 10): “I think we can be happy with the result: It’s my best qualifying this year, it was very close, and it might have been a bit better or worse, one place more or one place less, it’s all in Order. It’s still just a qualifying session and we have to do a good job on Sunday if we want to take a few points home. We will give our best.”
Antonio Giovinazzi (14th / starting position 11): “Another battle for the grid, in which I think we were very close to a place in Q3. P11 would have been possible, but in the end we didn’t make it: on my last lap, I locked the rear wheels while braking – up to that moment the lap wasn’t too bad. We’ll see what we can do from our starting position: It’s going to be a long race, especially given the expected tire degradation, but if we drive a clean race, we have a good chance of scoring points. “
Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal: “Having both cars in Q2 is a positive result and gives us confidence for the race. We’re starting just outside the top ten and have a free choice of tires, and we’re in a good position to have a big battle for points. The long straight up to the first corner will be decisive. We have to create a good starting position in the early stages and take every opportunity we have. We’ve been knocking on the door for points in every race lately, so let’s do everything we can to finish the job here. “
Kimi Raikkonen (12th / starting position 10): “I think we can be satisfied with the result: It’s my best qualifying this year, it was very close, and it might have been a bit better or worse, one place more or one place less, it’s all in Order. It’s still just a qualifying session and we have to do a good job on Sunday if we want to take a few points home. We will give our best.”
Antonio Giovinazzi (14th / starting position 11): “Another battle for the grid, in which I think we were very close to a place in Q3. P11 would have been possible, but in the end we didn’t make it: on my last lap, I locked the rear wheels while braking – up to that moment the lap wasn’t too bad. We’ll see what we can do from our starting position: It’s going to be a long race, especially given the expected tire degradation, but if we drive a clean race, we have a good chance of scoring points. “