Carlos Sainz will have a new opportunity to say goodbye to Ferrari with a victory. He was left wanting in Austin with second place, behind his garage neighbor, and could get even today at the Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, where with two superb laps he took the polethe sixth of his career.
Since Singapore 2023, the Spanish did not come out in the preferred position; Then, the pole position carried him to victory. In Mexico, why not too? The Ferrari has shown to have good pace with tire degradation. His first obstacle will be to overcome the harassment of Max Verstappen at the start.
Surprise in Q1
Checo Pérez, 18th, falls in front of his fans and Piastri, 16th, leaves a McLaren out of Q2 for the first time this year
In the first 17 minutes of the qualifying session, Q1, dominated by Lando Norris, two drivers were surprised by being left out unexpectedly: Checo Pérez in front of his audience and his entire family gathered in the garage, and Oscar Piastri, who had two laps and stayed at the bottom of the classification.
The Australian could have set a better lap with the 14th time, but Magnussen with the Haas threw him out of the top 15 and ended up being 17th. A McLaren was struck down at the first opportunity, for the first time this season. While the Mexican with the Red Bull did not go beyond 18th time and was left out of Q2 for the fifth time this year.
The Argentine Franco Colapinto (Williams) also fell, having passed the first cut in the last three classifications (of the four he had made in his brief career in F1).
The Q2
Norris dominated again ahead of Verstappen and the Ferraris, and Fernando Alonso falls in 13th place
In the second race, ended 10 seconds early due to a red flag caused by the Japanese Tsunoda (RB) when he crashed into a protection, Norris once again imposed his speed on a fast lap, leaving Verstappen and Sainz 2 tenths behind, and 3 to Leclerc.
Fernando Alonso was eliminated with the 13th time, so the Asturian will start his 400th race very late, although with a chance of finishing in the points zone to celebrate the record-breaking anniversary of F1.
The definitive Q3
Sainz set the best time on the first attempt with a prodigious lap
In the final Q3, the Ferraris emerged as the fastest cars on the first attempt. Sainz put in a stratospheric lap to take provisional pole, with 360 thousandths of an advantage over his Monegasque teammate. Next he had the two Mercedes, Russell and Hamilton, 4-5 tenths behind. And Norris, who did not make a good turn, was 8 tenths behind. Verstappen ran out of time because his time was canceled for racing outside the limits of the track.
In the second attempt, Carlos Sainz doubled his bet with another great lap, which lowered the first one by a tenth to set the bar below 1m16s, the only one who achieved it. The Madrid native scored his sixth pole position of his career. He will have Max Verstappen next to him at the start, who showed he had a few tenths saved for the finish, and on the second row, Norris and Leclerc.
#Carlos #Sainz #flies #score #sixth #pole #aspire #victory #Mexico
