Mexican GP, ​​Ferrari emotions: pole for Leclerc and Sainz on the front row! Verstappen only third

Ferrari unleashed in qualifying for the Mexican GP. Charles Leclerc took pole position by beating teammate Carlos Sainz junior for an all-red front row that brought a smile back to Maranello. The race is tomorrow and beating Red Bull on Sunday remains the main problem. But having beaten King Max Verstappen, who is third, is always a great satisfaction. Fourth time for an amazing Daniel Ricciardo, capable of beating Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton with AlphaTauri. Seventh Oscar Piastri with McLaren, then Russell with Mercedes and the two Alfa Romeos of Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu.

great performance

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Ferrari was able to once again extract a great single lap performance and Leclerc himself is preaching caution ahead of Sunday. The all-red front row had been missing for a year, it was the reward for a good job and the signal that there is potential to work on. It was important to have made the move after a growing weekend in which we worked in progression. Nobody expected the coup after free practice, but instead the two Ferrari drivers were astonished, both being up front is no coincidence.

chaos investigations

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Verstappen’s best time in Q1 ahead of Piastri, Ricciardo and Leclerc. Then Bottas and Perez. However, Lando Norris was sensationally excluded, stuck in penultimate position. Like him outside Ocon (Alpine), Magnussen (Haas), Stroll (Aston Martin) and Sargeant (Williams). Towards the end of the session yellow for impeding by Verstappen, Russell and Alonso who were noticed blocking at the exit of the pit lane: the race direction reported them to be investigated at the end of qualifying. But the chaos of the investigations did not end here. At the start of Q2 came a flurry of communications of investigations for potentially irregular behavior recorded at the end of Q1. Hamilton and Sargeant for not slowing down under the yellow flag, Russell, Norris and Zhou for not respecting the exit time. Sargeant and Tsunoda for overtaking with yellow flag. Then in Q2 Hamilton was the fastest ahead of Verstappen, Russell, Ricciardo, Piastri, Leclerc, Bottas, Perez, Sainz and Zhou. Albon, who had qualified, however had his time canceled for exceeding the track limits in turn 2 and was therefore eliminated.

times

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So at the start of the Mexican GP:

1. Leclerc (Ferrari) 1’17″166

2. Sainz (Ferrari) 1’17″233

3. Verstappen (Red Bull) 1’17″263

4. Ricciardo (AlphaTauri) 1’17″382

5. Perez (Red Bull) 1’17″423

6. Hamilton (Mercedes) 1’17″454

7. Plates (McLaren) 1’17″623

8. Russell (Mercedes) 1’17″674

9. Bottas (Alfa Romeo) 1’18″032

10. Zhou (Alfa Romeo) 1’18″050

11. Gasly (Alpine) 1’18″521

12. Hulkenberg (Haas) 1’18″524

13. Alonso (Aston Martin) 1’18″738

14. Albon (Williams) 1’19″147

15. Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) st

16. Ocon (Alpine) 1’19″080

17. Magnussen (Haas) 1’19″163

18. Stroll (Aston Martin) 1’19″227

19. Norris (McLaren) 1’21″554

20. Sargeant (Williams) st