Verstappen takes pole, but suffers 3-place grid penalty; Leclerc to start on P1
By Abhishek Aggarwal
Mexico City, 26 Oct 2019: Valtteri Bottas came out safe after a heavy crash in the final run of the qualifying near Turn 17 on Saturday but that put paid to the hopes of the Finn getting a pole position, as he is the only man who can stop Lewis Hamilton from winning the World Championship for another record year here at the Mexican Grand Prix, the 18th of the 21-event FIA World Formula 1 Championship at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez. A quick lap during the first runs put Max Verstappen on pole followed by Charles Leclerc of Ferrari with multiple world champion take p3 ahead of defending champion Lewis Hamilton.
However, it will not be Max Verstappen, who will start on pole for the race on Sunday. The talented youngster, who failed to respect the yellow flags and slow down after the incident, was penalised with a grid penalty of three places by the stewards. He took the second pole position of his career outwitting Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by 0.266s, but Leclerc will now start on pole and Sebastian Vettel will be promoted and his Ferrari will start from front row on P2. The AMG Petronas Mercedes team will not have even one of their Silver Arrows on the first row on Sunday but Lewis Hamilton will start on P3 with the grid penalty to the pole sitter.
Bottas was ahead of Verstappen in the final run of the Q3, when he crashed heavily, seconds before the end of the session, hitting the side barriers but he jumped out of the car safe, and was unhurt after the accident. Bottas will start on P6.
The Red Bulls took the lead early on in the session with Verstappen and teammate Alex Albon in the run. Albon clocked a lap of 1:16.175 that left him almost tenths of a second ahead of Leclerc. But Verstappen then posted a quicker lap to beat Albon by 0.249 of a second.
Defending champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes, Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari and Valtteri Bottas were all behind the third-placed Leclerc and in the final run as all elected to stay in their garages, leaving the track clear for the battle to stay in the session.
Earlier in Q2, crowd favourite and home hero, Sergio Perez, had an unfortunate exit from the qualifying session as the Mexican was eliminated along with Nico Hulkenberg, Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinnazi
Further ahead Daniil Kvyat and Carlos Sainz put in good final flying laps to jump to sixth and seventh respectively and that dropped Bottas to eighth place ahead of Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and McLaren’s Lando Norris. Also through to the second session were Alfa’s Kimi Räikkönen in P11 followed by Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, Racing Point’s Sergio Pérez, the second Renault of Nico Hulkenberg and the second Alfa Romeo of Antonio Giovinazzi, adds an FIA release.
Q2 began with Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes opting to send their drivers out on medium compound Pirellis and after the first runs it was Vettel who led the way with a lap of 1:15.914, while Verstappen held second thanks to a lap of 1:16.136. Leclerc was third ahead Bottas and Hamilton.
In the final runs the Mercedes pair again went out on medium tyres and the Red Bulls and the Ferraris circulated on soft tyres, though they later backed out of the runs to ensure qualification on medium compound tyres. Hamilton and Bottas kept going, however, and Hamilton jumped to P1 with a lap of 1:15.721, a tenth ahead of his team-mate. Vettel was third and Verstappen progressed to Q3 in P4 ahead of Leclerc, Sainz and Norris. Albon made it through in P8 ahead of the Toro Rossos of Kvyat and Gasly.
Verstappen then proved unstoppable in the final Q3 top-10 shootout. After going quickest in the first runs with a lap of 1:14.910 that left him 0.124s clear of Leclerc the Dutchman ramped up the pace in final runs to set a pole position time of 1:14.758. There was confusion in the final moments, however, as Bottas crashed in the final corner on his final run bringing out the yellow flags. The impact was heavy but he was soon out of the car and safe.
With Verstappen on pole and Leclerc on the front row, third place went to Vettel, with Hamilton fourth. Albon scored his best qualifying result to date with fifth and Bottas qualified sixth, though the heavy damage to his car calls into question where he might start. Sainz qualified seventh ahead of team-mate Norris and the final top 10 places were filled by Toro Rosso’s Kvyat and Gasly.
2019 FIA Formula One Mexican Grand Prix – QualifyingÂ
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull Racing 1:14.758 7 207.260
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:15.024 0.266 7 206.525
3 Sebastian Vettel Ferrari 1:15.170 0.412 7 206.124
4 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:15.262 0.504 6 205.872
5 Alexander Albon Red Bull Racing 1:15.336 0.578 6 205.670
6 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:15.338 0.580 5 205.665
7 Carlos Sainz Jr. McLaren 1:16.014 1.256 6 203.836
8 Lando Norris McLaren 1:16.322 1.564 6 203.013
9 Daniil Kvyat Toro Rosso 1:16.469 1.711 6 202.623
10 Pierre Gasly Toro Rosso 1:16.586 1.828 6 202.313
11 Sergio Pérez Racing Point 1:16.687 0.966 6 202.047
12 Nico Hülkenberg Renault 1:16.885 1.164 6 201.526
13 Daniel Ricciardo Renault 1:16.933 1.212 6 201.401
14 Kimi Räikkönen Alfa Romeo 1:16.967 1.246 6 201.312
15 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo 1:17.269 1.548 6 200.525
16 Lance Stroll Racing Point 1:18.065 2.116 8 198.480
17 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:18.436 2.487 9 197.541
18 Romain Grosjean Haas 1:18.599 2.650 9 197.132
19 George Russell Williams 1:18.823 2.874 10 196.572
20 Robert Kubica Williams 1:20.179 4.230 9 193.247
