Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas has taken pole position for the Mexican GP, leading a 1-2 for the Brackley team as Lewis Hamilton claimed second place.
In what was a surprising turn of events, Mercedes proved untouchable in the final part of qualifying as Bottas set a 1:15.875 on his first run in Q3. This was over a tenth quicker than what Hamilton managed, but it was Red Bull who shocked as they fell short in the crunch part of qualifying.
Having looked the favourites throughout the weekend, Verstappen was left scratching his head after falling 0.350 shy of what Bottas managed.
A reasonably scruffy first flying lap put him on the back foot, while his second run was ruined when AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda went off through the esses on the final runs. This distracted Sergio Perez, with the two cars being off the track and distracting Verstappen as he arrived at the scene.
Perez was left in fourth, with neither Red Bull improving on their second runs as a result of the incident.
AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly finished in fifth, just over a tenth shy of Perez and possibly highlighting just how far short Red Bull fell in the final part of qualifying.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz finished sixth, having survived a scare in the first part of qualifying when he appeared to suffer a power unit issue leaving the pits. He managed to get the car fired back up to full power, going on to make it into Q3.
McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo was seventh, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, and Tsunoda in ninth. The Japanese driver will start on the Soft compound, having been the only driver in the top ten in Q2 to use the red marked tyres to get through the second part of qualifying.
Rounding out the top ten was McLaren’s Lando Norris, although he will start from the back of the grid as a result of an engine change grid penalty.
2021 F1 MEXICAN GP – QUALIFYING RESULTS
| POS. | DRIVER | NAT. | TEAM | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 |
| 1 | Valtteri Bottas | FIN | Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team | 1m16.727s | 1m16.864s | 1m15.875s |
| 2 | Lewis Hamilton | GBR | Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team | 1m17.207s | 1m16.474s | 1m16.020s |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | NED | Red Bull Racing | 1m16.788s | 1m16.483s | 1m16.225s |
| 4 | Sergio Perez | MEX | Red Bull Racing | 1m17.003s | 1m17.055s | 1m16.342s |
| 5 | Pierre Gasly | FRA | Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda | 1m16.908s | 1m16.955s | 1m16.456s |
| 6 | Carlos Sainz | ESP | Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow | 1m17.517s | 1m17.248s | 1m16.761s |
| 7 | Daniel Ricciardo | AUS | McLaren F1 Team | 1m17.719s | 1m17.092s | 1m16.763s |
| 8 | Charles Leclerc | MON | Scuderia Ferrari Mission Winnow | 1m16.748s | 1m17.034s | 1m16.837s |
| 9 | Yuki Tsunoda | JPN | Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda | 1m17.330s | 1m16.701s | 1m17.158s |
| 10 | Lando Norris | GBR | McLaren F1 Team | 1m17.569s | 1m17.473s | 1m36.830s |
| 11 | Sebastian Vettel | GER | Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team | 1m17.502s | 1m17.746s | |
| 12 | Kimi Raikkonen | FIN | Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen | 1m17.606s | 1m17.958s | |
| 13 | George Russell | GBR | Williams Racing | 1m17.958s | 1m18.172s | |
| 14 | Antonio Giovinazzi | ITA | Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen | 1m17.897s | 1m18.290s | |
| 15 | Esteban Ocon | FRA | Alpine F1 Team | 1m18.126s | 1m18.405s | |
| 16 | Fernando Alonso | ESP | Alpine F1 Team | 1m18.452s | ||
| 17 | Nicholas Latifi | CAN | Williams Racing | 1m18.756s | ||
| 18 | Mick Schumacher | GER | Uralkali Haas F1 Team | 1m18.858s | ||
| 19 | Nikita Mazepin | RUS | Uralkali Haas F1 Team | 1m19.303s | ||
| 20 | Lance Stroll | CAN | Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team | 1m20.873s |
After being absent from the 2020 season calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Formula 1 returns to racing in Mexico this weekend.
