Sainz storms to pole ahead of Verstappen, Norris

Carlos Sainz scorched to pole for the Mexican Grand Prix with a 0.225-second advantage over Formula 1 championship leader Max Verstappen.

Sainz was in imperious form throughout the session and found two times good enough for pole – opening his Q3 run with a 1m16.055s and improving on his final run to a 1m15.946s to line up at the front of Sunday’s grid.

Verstappen rescued a front-row start after losing his first Q3 lap to track limits having cut both parts of the Turn 2/3 chicane, and set a 1m16.171s on his final attempt to qualify ahead of championship rival Lando Norris.

Norris’ first lap was comparatively poor and was only fifth at the end of the opening runs, but found improvement on his final tour to head the second row alongside Charles Leclerc.

The Monegasque saved a snap through the high-speed corners and managed to collect fourth, albeit three tenths down on his team-mate.

The two Mercedes drivers occupied the third row, as George Russell outqualified Lewis Hamilton as the younger Briton improved more on the final tour. They were ahead of an impressive Kevin Magnussen, who parked his car seventh on the grid over Pierre Gasly.

Alex Albon and Nico Hulkenberg were ninth and 10th, the German having overcooked it on the exit of Turn 12 on his last lap to lose a chance at moving further up the grid.

Yuki Tsunoda was the master of his own Q2 elimination after putting his RB in the wall ahead the Foro Sol section while on a flying lap, causing a red flag with a crash at Turn 12.

This also denied his team-mate Liam Lawson the chance to progress, as the two looked set to improve and challenge Gasly’s 10th-fastest lap.

Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were both starting their final flying laps before the session was stopped and were subsequently eliminated, while Valtteri Bottas was also denied the chance to break out of Q2 in the wake of the incident.

Oscar Piastri and Sergio Perez were the big scalps taken in Q1; the Australian failed to reclaim his FP3-topping form and also failed to progress into the second phase of qualifying – making his life more difficult by losing a lap for track limits. H

He reckoned that had he not gone beyond the Turn 12 kerb and lost a second in the process, he would have made it through.

Perez was dumped out at the first hurdle of qualifying for his home grand prix having struggled with braking in the low-speed corners throughout the session. The Mexican only got up to 15th on his final lap of the opening stage but was shuffled down the order by Charles Leclerc’s escape from the drop zone.

Esteban Ocon and Zhou Guanyu propped up the order, as Ocon’s late effort to overturn the on-the-cusp Lance Stroll crumbled in the final sector.