Mexican Grand Prix – Qualifying: Bottas and Mercedes emerge from the woods

The qualifying session in Mexico got off to a hectic start. Indeed, Red Bull’s mechanics spent long minutes working on the rear of the two cars, as had already been the case during the third free practice session. They finally managed to take to the track, but the team’s leaders did not inspire unwavering confidence.

But as all the drivers were preparing for their first attempt, the red flag was raised. The reason? Lance Stroll went off track on the finish line, destroying his Aston Martin after being in the dust on the outside of the turn.

During the restart, it was a red alert at Ferrari as Carlos Sainz had no engine power. After a reset on his steering wheel, the Spaniard was able to resume a normal pace.

On the other hand, the men from Milton Keynes quickly reassured themselves as they took the lead on their first attempt, with Max Verstappen over six tenths ahead of his teammate while Lewis Hamilton was only fifth, 788 milliseconds behind. The Black Arrows then had to make a second attempt to get closer. In a final attempt, Valtteri Bottas eventually took the lead.

Bad operation at Alpine: while Esteban Ocon will be penalized on the grid due to an engine change, the Frenchman finished just ahead of his teammate Fernando Alonso. The Spaniard is therefore deprived of Q2 whereas he did not undergo any downgrade: « That was not the plan. We did not have a good enough qualification, everyone made a mistake, starting with me. »

In the end, the eliminated from Q1 are Fernando Alonso, Nicholas Latifi, Mick Schumacher, Nikita Mazepin and Lance Stroll.

For Q2, few strategic choices: everyone, except Esteban Ocon and Yuki Tsunoda, chose to use medium tires in order to benefit from them at the start tomorrow. The gap was then much smaller than at the beginning of the weekend since Lewis Hamilton missed out on his title rival by only 16 thousandths, before doing even better on his second attempt.

In the final minute of the session, Antonio Giovinazzi caused a yellow flag after making a mistake at the entrance of the stadium. Although the Alfa Romeo driver managed to get going again, it nullified the efforts of the other drivers.

The eliminated from Q2 are: Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Räikkönen, George Russell, Antonio Giovinazzi and Esteban Ocon.

On the occasion of Q3’s first outing, Lando Norris and Yuki Tsunoda, who will be sent to the back of the grid, played the role of model teammates by offering a huge tow to their teammates.

But above all big surprise: Mercedes pulled off the perfect move with Valtteri Bottas setting the fastest time, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton! Max Verstappen was thus rejected by more than three tenths. The second attempt did not change anything as no driver was able to improve. So it was indeed Valtteri Bottas who secured his 19th pole position.

🏁 END OF QUALIFYING 🏁

TOP 10
Bottas 🔥
Hamilton
Verstappen
Perez
Gasly
Sainz
Ricciardo
Leclerc
Tsunoda
Norris#MexicoGP 🇲🇽 #F1 pic.twitter.com/LASiXNlIjM

— Formula 1 (@F1) November 6, 2021