Mexico City Grand Prix Qualifying: Sainz stuns Verstappen and Norris
F1 NewsSunday, 27 October 2024 at 00:10
Carlos Sainz delivered a stunning performance to take pole for the 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix beating Formula 1 Title contenders Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.
Ferrari have shown good form since the start of the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend, and while McLaren upped their game with Oscar Piastri topping FP3 and Norris second, they ultimately failed to deliver when it mattered.
Piastri was eliminated in Q1 while Norris did not deliver the lap he needed to take pole in Q3 despite topping Q1 and Q2.
While Ferrari stared qualifying trailing McLaren, Sainz was clearly faster than Charles Leclerc, as was the case all weekend long and the Spaniard delivered in Q3 a stunning lap to take provisional pole and then improved on his second run to secure his first pole this season, his sixth F1 career pole.
Verstappen on the other hand was on the back foot all weekend long, suffering from power unit issues since Friday which severely curtailed his running.
The fact that his first lap in Q3 was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 2 was proof of how much he was pushing but he was ultimately under pressure, having to deliver with only one chance left.
The Dutchman duly did, and while he had no answer to Sainz's pace in the Ferrari, he managed to go second fastest, beating his direct rival, Norris who was only good for third.
It was a disappointing session for McLaren who had only one car in the top ten and on the second row while pole was a high possibility for them.
George Russell was fifth fastest for Mercedes ahead of Lewis Hamilton in sixth on another weekend were Mercedes just could not get their W15 into an ideal operating window.
However, Haas managed to deliver a double top ten finish with Kevin Magnussen in seventh and Nico Hulkenberg in tenth.
Another over-achiever was Pierre Gasly who was eighth fastest in the Alpine with Alex Albon bouncing back nicely from his Friday crash to take ninth.
As for the Mexican fans, they were disappointed as their hero, Sergio Perez was knocked out of qualifying in Q1, another frustrating performance from the driver who admitted he is having a terrible season and was hoping to turn it around at his home race.
What the top three said
A pumped Sainz said after qualifying: "Very happy and a great couple of laps. A lot of times around Mexico you always have the feeling like you cannot put a lap together and itโs extremely difficult with how much sliding there is.
"But today, honestly my two laps in Q3 were pretty much identical, almost perfect. I just put two really solid laps in Q3, enough for pole, and very happy because thatโs not normally the case around Mexico with how tricky it is.
"Definitely since Austin weโve done, it seems especially on my side, a step up," Sainz added commenting on his improved form.
"Also in qualifying trying to find something extra with the out-lap and tyre preparation, and it seems like we are going in the right direction.
"Obviously looking forward to finish the job tomorrow, but at least the pole position of today โ Iโll take it because it shows progress and some really solid laps," the Spaniard concluded.
Second-placed Verstappen was asked how much pressure he felt after his banker Q3 lap was deleted for track limits' violation; he responded: "Quite a lot.
"Yesterday I barely didn't do a lot of laps so we were playing a lot of catch up," he went on. "FP3 was already not very good so I was already under a lot of pressure to have a good qualifying. Then of course my lap time got taken away so it added a little bit more pressure.
"But very happy to be on the front row, I honestly didn't think that would be possible," the reigning F1 champion concluded.
As for Norris, he added: "Itโs always tough to say, but Iโm pretty happy with third, honestly. I feel like I got to the limit of the car quite quickly, which made us look good. But I struggled to get a lot more out of it in the final two laps.
"Carlos and Max did good laps, especially Carlos has been very quick all weekend. Iโm happy with third," the Briton insisted.
Norris had to finish ahead of Verstappen in the race to keep his F1 title prospects alive, so when asked about his race expectations, he responded: "Itโs tough to say.
"None of us have done proper long runs on the tyres that weโre going to be on tomorrow. Thereโs question marks for all of us but Ferrari have been very good in qualy and long-run pace over the last couple of races.
"Itโs going to be tough but weโre in a good position, so Iโm looking forward to it," the McLaren driver concluded.
Q1: Piastri and Perez are out!
Compared to the final practice session, the track temperatures rose as the drivers were getting ready to start the Mexico City Grand Prix qualifying registering 44 degrees Celsius with air temperature at 22 degrees.
The green light at the end of the pitlane was on, but drivers took their time, as Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu were out first.
Then more drivers followed and interestingly Ferrari send out Leclerc and Sainz on Medium tyres. Norris and Piastri were also on the Mediums; the same applied for Mercedes.
Sainz and Leclerc went first and second after their first run, then Norris went fastest, the Hamilton went third fastest splitting the Ferraris with Russell fourth. Piastri went eighth fastest.
Verstappen then set his first lap time of the session, on Softs and went fastest, two tenths clear of Norris, but Hamilton had his lap time deleted for exceeding track limits.
Order after first run: Verstappen - Hulkenberg - Norris - Yuki Tsunoda - Sainz - Fernando Alonso - Liam Lawson - Lance Stroll - Albon - Bottas - Leclerc - Magnussen - Franco Colapinto - Hamilton.
With less than four minutes the second runs were on, with all drivers now on Soft tyres but Piastri had his first lap time on the red-walled tyres deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 12.
At the end of Q1, Norris was the fastest, 0.273s ahead of Sainz in second and 0.298s ahead of Verstappen in third.
As for those who didn't make it, the first was Colapinto who was 16th fastest, missing out by 0.151s to Stroll.
Then came the shocker! Piastri was out after topping FP3. He was only 17th fastest, 0.041s behind Colapinto and 0.014s ahead of local hero Perez who was 18th.
Esteban Ocon was 19th ahead of Zhou in 20th.
Q2: Tsunoda in the barriers!
Q2 was given the green light and now all the drivers went out on track with Soft tyres, no gambling on Mediums this time around.
Verstappen went fastest, but then Leclerc was third behind Albon in second while Sainz could only managed second fastest.
Leclerc then had his lap time deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 2, while Verstappen complained about lack of grip from his rear tyres in the middle sector.
Then Norris, the only McLaren in contention, started his first Q2 lap and went fastest over three tenths ahead of Verstappen.
Russell went third fastest while Hamilton was fourth.
The order after the first runs: Norris - Verstappen - Russell - Hamilton - Sainz - Gasly - Albon - Tsunoda - Lawson - Alonso.
In the drop zone: Magnussen - Stroll - Hulkenberg - Bottas - Leclerc.
With four minutes remaining, the second round of laps started with Albon the first driver out there trying to make it into Q3. Norris did not bother to run again.
With ten seconds on the clock, the Red flag was out as Tsunoda ended up in the barriers at Turn 12. The other problem, Tsunoda ruined Lawson's lap and both were out of Q2.
With Q2 done, Norris was the driver on top with a lap time of 1:16.301 that was 0.213s faster than Verstappen in second with Sainz 0.001s further behind in third.
The eliminated group was led by Tsunoda who was 11th fastest, with teammate Lawson 12the fastest.
Alonso was 13th fastest in the Aston Martin ahead of Stroll, 14th in the sister car with Bottas 15th.
Q3: Sainz delivers, Verstappen limits the damage, Norris flops
With Tsunoda's car cleared, the barriers inspected and fixed, the remaining ten drivers started their final bid to secure the best position on the starting grid for Sunday's race.
And with ten minutes to go, the opening runs began with Verstappen the first driver to start a flying lap with Norris right behind him.
Verstappen went fastest and Norris could only manage second behind his F1 title rival as the Ferraris were starting their laps behind.
Leclerc went second and dropped Norris to third and Sainz went fastest as Verstappen's time was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 2.
Provisional pole for Sainz and a mountain to climb for Verstappen.
The order: Sainz - Leclerc - Russell - Hamilton - Norris - Gasly - Albon - Hulkenberg - Magnussen - Verstappen.
With three minutes on the clock, the final runs of qualifying were underway Sainz leading the pack with Leclerc behind him.
Leclerc started his lap first with Sainz following as Verstappen chased them.
Leclerc improved but couldn't threaten Sainz who improved his time while Verstappen went second fastest while Norris was third fastest dropping Leclerc to fourth.
In the end, Sainz bagged pole with a lap time of 1:15.946, the only driver to break the 1:16s barrier. He was 0.225s ahead of Verstappen who did well to take second with only one lap.
After showing much promise in Q1 and Q2 Norris could not reproduce the same pace in Q3 and was third fastest, over three tenths off pole.
Leclerc was fourth in the second Ferrari, 0.319s off the pace of his teammate and 0.091s ahead of Russell who was fifth for Mercedes.
Hamilton who survived a moment in the final corner was sixth fastest in the sister Mercedes, seven tenths off the pace and 0.635s ahead of Magnussen, the Dane seventh in the Haas.
Gasly was eighth in the Alpine ahead of Albon in ninth while Hulkenberg was tenth.
Latest News
Loading
