© Vladimir RysBulls Set For A Mexican ChargeMax and Checo to start from second row on Sunday in Mexico City.
MaxVerstappenandSergioPérezwilllineuponthesecondrowofthegridfortomorrow’sMexicoCityGrandPrixafterbothdrivers’finalrunsinQ3werecompromisedwhenAlphaTauri’sYukiTsunodawentoffatturn10.
The incident caused Checo to also run wide and prompted Max to back out of his final run when the yellow flags were flown. That left the Bulls in third and fourth as Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas took pole position, with the Finn's teammate Lewis Hamilton second.
Mexican Flag Waving In The Stands© Vladimir Rys
At the start of Q1, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc set the early pace with a lap of 1:17.991, half a second ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel and the second Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.
However, seven minutes into the session Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll lost control through the Peraltada and slid into the barriers at high speed. The Canadian hit the wall nose first and was then spun round so that the rear of the car slammed into the barriers. The red flags were immediately displayed.
After a 25-minute delay while the TecPro barriers were repaired at the crash site, the session resumed. Bottas vaulted to top spot with a time of 1:17.516 with Hamilton second, but the Bulls were on track and Checo took P1 with a lap of 1:17.451. Max was just behind the Mexican on track though and when he crossed the line it was in a blistering time of 1:16.788. Both Mercedes went for another run and Bottas moved to P2 with a lap of 1:16.959 and Hamilton took P3 ahead of Checo. The Mexican was also on another run, however, and he moved back to P3.
Weaving Through The Colourful Track In Mexico© Getty Images
In the final runs, Bottas put in a good lap to take P1 with a time of 1:16.727. Leclerc took second place meaning that Max progressed in P3. AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly jumped to P3 in the final moments of the segment and Checo went through in P5 ahead of Hamilton.
At the other end of the order, Alpine’s Fernando Alonso was eliminated in P16 ahead of Williams’ Nicholas Latifi, the Haas cars of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin and the unfortunate Stroll.
Along with the bulk of the remaining drivers, the Bulls emerged for Q2 on medium tyres. Max quickly found his way to top spot with a lap of 1:16.483 and Checo was in P2 with a lap of 1:17.005. The Mexican was shuffled down to sixth place as other first-run times came in, with one of those ahead being Tsunoda who claimed P3 as one of only two drivers on soft tyres.
Sticking Close To The Apex On Mediums© Getty Images
In the second runs, as Max circled slowly on a set of soft tyres, Hamilton took top spot with a lap of 1:16.474. Max thus went through in P2 ahead of Tsunoda, Bottas and Gasly. Leclerc took P6 and Checo progressed to the top-10 shootout in seventh, ahead of Ricciardo, Sainz and Norris. Eliminated, though, were Sebastian Vettel, Räikkönen, George Russell, Anotnio Giovinazzi and Esteban Ocon.
In Q3 the Bulls were surprised in the opening runs when Bottas claimed provisional pole with a lap of 1:15.875 ahead of teammate Hamilton, leaving Max third and Checo in fourth place.
The Bulls went out for their final runs with Checo ahead of Max and it initially looked as though the Mexican’s efforts to provide a tow were working. But ahead of Checo, Tsunoda went off at high speed in turn 10 and the incident spooked the Mexican. He too went off track and his lap was ruined. The yellow flags were flown, and following close behind, Max lifted, his lap also gone.
Max On Second Row In Mexico City© Getty Images
Neither Bottas nor Hamilton could improve on their final runs and the top-four order remained as it had been after the opening runs with Bottas taking pole ahead of Hamilton and with Max and Checo locking out row two.
Behind the leading quartet, Gasly qualified fifth ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, the McLaren of Daniel Ricciardo and the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. The unfortunate Tsunoda qualified ninth but will start from the grid due to PU penalties and 10th place was taken by McLaren’s Lando Norris.
Mexico City Grand Prix 2021: Qualifying
Home Race For The Bulls In Mexico© Getty Images
Max Ready For Fight On Sunday© Getty Images
Checo Working The Track On Mediums© Getty Images
Fiesta Atmosphere In Mexico City© Getty Images
Approaching A Turn On Softs© Getty Images
Checo Going For It On Softs© Getty Images
Max Ready For Action On The Track© Getty Images
Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully the race will be exciting, there's a long run to the first corner so let's see what happens.
“P3 isn’t so bad considering we were really struggling to get the tyres to work today, we were sliding around a lot. My first lap in Q3 wasn’t great, the grip was terrible so when I saw the gap to Mercedes, I thought that was fair enough.
We needed to find a better balance in the car so we tried to make a few changes to how our car was running and then I think the second lap of Q3 was looking okay. I don’t know what happened in front of me but I saw Checo and Yuki both go wide and I saw a lot of dust so I thought that a car had crashed.
I’ve been caught out by yellow flags here before so I slowed down, as a result I lost a lot of momentum and time. It’s a shame that we both aren’t locking out the front row tomorrow after being so competitive all weekend. Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully the race will be exciting, there’s a long run to the first corner so let’s see what happens.”
Checo Seating In His Car© Getty Images
“The car was not the same as it was in FP3 after we had to change the rear wing, but we did couple of adjustments in the session and once we got on top of it, all of a sudden I found Yuki off his racing line ahead of me at turn 11, which hurt my final lap. He wasn’t a distraction it was that I was too close to him and it forced me to brake.
Once I did that I lost my downforce and I think I got a lot of dirty air, lost the car unfortunately and lost my lap. We didn’t have the pace across qualifying, but I think I could have improved a bit going into that final lap, I was up already on my previous lap and think I could have improved by a couple of tenths. We have to analyse as a Team to make sure tomorrow we have a good race car and are able to put pressure on the Mercedes ahead of us.
I think the launch we have tomorrow is more important than the grid position, there is a long race ahead and we will try to be there, I am optimistic and I hope all the fans enjoy it. The crowd have been amazing, they are giving me so much love and support. I just look forward to tomorrow now and hope I can celebrate with them on the podium, I will give my maximum.”
Christian Horner Standing At The Pit Wall© Getty Images
It is going to be very tight in the race tomorrrow, we need to nail the start.
“Today has been disappointing because we felt we could have finished with both drivers on the front row, but we have both on the second row of the grid and they can have a great race from there. Max starts on the clean side of the grid so that’s a positive. It is going to be very tight in the race tomorrow, we need to nail the start with both the drivers. We are disappointed for today but optimistic for tomorrow and we still think we’ve got a great chance in this race, but it’s certainly looking harder than it was this morning.”
MexicoCityGrandPrixQualifyingTop10
| Position | Driver | Team | Time | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| Valtteri Bottas | Lewis Hamilton | Max Verstappen | Sergio Pérez | Pierre Gasly | Carlos Sainz | Daniel Ricciardo | Charles Leclerc | Yuki Tsunoda | Lando Norris |
| Mercedes | Mercedes | Red Bull Racing Honda | Red Bull Racing Honda | AlphaTauri | Ferrari | McLaren | Ferrari | AlphaTauri | McLaren |
| 1.15.875 | 1.16.020 | 1.16.225 | 1.16.342 | 1.16.456 | 1.16.761 | 1.16.763 | 1.16.837 | 1.16.158 | 1.36.830 |
