The Mexico City Grand Prix is live on 5 Live and the BBC Sport website
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took pole for the Mexico City Grand Prix, fending off a challenge from Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Mercedes had one of their most competitive qualifying performances this year, but Verstappen was too quick, taking pole by 0.304 seconds.
Britain’s Russell held on to second place despite a mistake on his last lap.
Compatriot Hamilton recovered from his first-lap crash to take third, 0.05 seconds slower than Russell.
Ferrari, the 2022 pole position kings so far, were nowhere to be found: Carlos Sainz was fifth, behind the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, and 0.576s off pole.
His teammate Charles Leclerc, who has more poles than anyone so far this year, was overtaken by the improved Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas and could only manage seventh.
McLaren’s Lando Norris was eighth, ahead of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon.
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Mercedes comes up with a surprise
It was no surprise to see Verstappen on pole as he and Red Bull have taken off in the second half of the season and look almost unbeatable, with the drivers’ and constructors’ championships already tied.
But Mercedes looked like they might have a chance to take what would have been just their second pole of the year after Russell’s in Hungary, and first in the dry.
Russell was 0.132 seconds behind Verstappen in the early stages of final qualifying and felt he had a chance to beat Red Bull, even if the Mercedes team disagreed, but he made a mistake in his final back
“The team deserved more today,” Russell said. “They produced a really great car this weekend. I feel like it was our pole and it was just a terrible lap from me. I’m excited to be back on the front row though.
“We brought an update to Austin [at last weekend’s US Grand Prix] and he didn’t really give us a chance to show his worth. But here drag is less important at high altitude and that’s why we’ve made progress.
Hamilton said: “This is the best qualifying we’ve had all year. It just shows perseverance and never giving up is the way to go.”
The seven-time champion now has his sights set on a first win of the year, and benefit from the long climb to the first corner and fight for the lead.
“I’m actually pretty happy with this position to start with,” Hamilton said. “It’s a long way to the first turn.”
What happened to Ferrari?
Ferrari failed to place any of its cars in the top three for the first time this season.
The car has seemed out of whack all weekend. Leclerc crashed in the Esses on Friday and Sainz had several moments there until Saturday.
The red cars simply lacked pace and never fought for pole, raising further questions about where their speed has gone.
Sainz said: “It was a fight. A clear fight. I don’t know if we didn’t get the set-up right or we just got the tires wrong or the altitude is affecting us a bit too much, but it’s clear. the car is not so competitive in a lap as in other grand prix.
“Now we have to focus on putting on a good face knowing that we might not be the fastest, but when the car is tricky to do a good lap in qualifying is always tricky.
“If I had combined the sectors of the two laps of Q3, I’m in an 18.0, 17.9 (good enough for the front row). It’s how hard it was to drive it, how many mistakes I made, because it was a struggle very big”.
Leclerc said he had an engine problem that was causing drivability problems, with the engine not responding to his throttle inputs. “If we can fix that,” he said, “I’m sure we can have a good outcome.”
Bottas actually came within 0.05s of being the fastest Ferrari-powered car on the grid for Alfa Romeo, which has a new floor this weekend to add to a new front wing introduced in the Japan makes two races and more bodywork changes. at the United States Grand Prix last weekend.
The Finn was near the bottom of the qualifying and achieved his best grid position since sixth in the opening race in Bahrain.