Max Verstappen’s dominance of the Formula 1 season continued as the Red Bull driver took pole position for the 2022 Mexican Grand Prix beating out the Mercedes pair of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
Russell ended up 0.304s behind Verstappen, though on his final run he was matching the Red Bull before a mistake at Turn 12 meant his lap time was deleted, handing the Dutchman his sixth pole of the season.
Hometown hero Sergio Perez could only qualify in fourth position, much to the disappointment of the Mexico City crowd, though that was his position on the grid in 2021 when he managed to get a podium.
“It was a good qualifying, the car got into a better rhythm,” Verstappen said after Qualifying.
“It’s a long run to Turn 1 so we need a good start but we have a quick car and that’s the most important thing. It’s amazing to drive here. Checo will be there tomorrow, I hope for a fun race will lots of action.”
Super close Q2
After the second part of Qualifying, it looked like we would have a five car fight for pole position as there was just half a tenth of a second separated the top five, and 0.014s between the top four.
Alas, it never turned out that way, and Ferrari were the biggest losers as they could only manage fifth and seventh, with Valtteri Bottas in the Alfa Romeo sandwiched between Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.
Lando Norris in the McLaren, was followed by Alpine pair of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon to round out the top 10.
Aston Martin come down
After showing great pace in Austin just one week ago, Aston Martin were brought back down to earth with Lance Stroll qualifying in 18th and Sebastian Vettel coming 17th. Only the Williams cars were slower.
Mick Schumacher was knocked out of Q1 by the Alfa Romeo of Guanyu Zhou, in a further blow to the German being kept on at Haas for another season.
