Lewis Hamilton leads Mercedes front-row lockout in Mexico
Lewis Hamilton will start on pole position for Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix after turning a 1:18.704 during qualifying Saturday at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City.
Hamilton beat his Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg by 0.254 seconds to take his 10th pole of the season. Rosberg set his best time right in the closing moments of the session, and had otherwise been struggling in the battle against his teammate this weekend.
Behind them, the Red Bull Racing teammates locked out the second row while Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg placed fifth. The Ferrari teammates placed sixth and seventh with Kimi Raikkonen ahead, despite the fact that they had shown an impressive pace all weekend. Vettel may be investigated after holding up Hamilton during the second qualifying session.
Neither Mexican driver made it through into Q3 after Sergio Perez and Esteban Gutierrez were both eliminated in the first two rounds of qualifying. Perez placed 12th in his Force India, sandwiched by the two McLarens.
Meanwhile, having scored a point in front of their home fans last weekend in Austin, the Haas F1 team had a qualifying session to forget. Gutierrez spun in the closing moments of Q1 and held up his teammate Romain Grosjean, preventing them both from advancing into Q2. The team has been struggling to get heat in the tires all weekend. Also eliminated in Q1 was Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat, who ended the session in the garage with a mechanical failure. All of this drama allowed Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein to advance into Q2, where he qualified 16th.
Renault’s Jolyon Palmer was unable to take place in qualifying after damaging his chassis over a curb in the Saturday morning practice session.
Unofficial qualifying results:
1. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
2. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
3. Max Verstappen - Red Bull
4. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull
5. Nico Hulkenberg - Force India
6. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
7. Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
8. Valtteri Bottas - Williams
9. Felipe Massa - Williams
10. Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso
11. Fernando Alonso - McLaren
12. Sergio Perez - Force India
13. Jenson Button - McLaren
14. Kevin Magnussen - Renault
15. Marcus Ericsson - Sauber
16. Pascal Wehrlein - Manor
17. Esteban Gutierrez - Haas
18. Daniil Kvyat - Toro Rosso
19. Felipe Nasr - Sauber
20. Esteban Ocon - Manor
21. Romain Grosjean - Haas
22. Jolyon Palmer - Renault
