Mexico City Grand Prix qualifying result: Lewis Hamilton takes pole position

Lewis Hamilton secured his first pole position with Ferrari, marking his first pole in over three years, at the Mexico City Grand Prix. The seven-time Formula 1 champion edged out Mercedes driver George Russell by a razor-thin margin of 0.009 seconds. These two drivers, who are the only ones with a chance to stop Kimi Antonelli from clinching the world championship on Sunday, dominated the front row of the grid.

Kimi Antonelli qualified fifth, trailing behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. However, due to a one-place grid penalty for Verstappen, Antonelli will start in fourth position. The championship outcome hinges on a few possibilities: Russell must win with Antonelli finishing lower than ninth, or Hamilton must claim victory while Antonelli fails to score points to prevent the Italian from securing the title.

Hamilton’s pole position at Mexico City is notably his first since the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix, a gap of three years and three months, and it marks the 105th pole of his illustrious career. He also becomes the oldest driver to earn pole since Mario Andretti at the 1982 Italian Grand Prix. Both Hamilton and Russell set their fastest laps early in the session and ended up waiting to see if their rivals could surpass their times. Leclerc initially set a strong time but was 0.119 seconds slower than Hamilton, while Antonelli struggled to find the pace. Verstappen appeared poised to take pole but made a critical mistake, locking up and ruining his lap at the hairpin in the stadium section.

Reflecting on his achievement, Hamilton said, “Oh man, I’m lost for words. It’s been a really challenging weekend – we had the engine issue yesterday, which meant we were on the back foot and didn’t do a long run. We’ve done a really good job on the setup and to have pole here, wow, it feels special. It’s my first pole for Ferrari, and 105th, I like that number. To have your first Ferrari pole, it takes me back to watching Michael [Schumacher] get all those poles when he was at Ferrari and all those wins.” He admitted to being fourth after initial runs but considered his final lap nearly flawless, stating, “I don’t think I lost any time anywhere. It was a super-good lap.”

George Russell, pleased to end a streak of difficult form though unable to pinpoint a reason, made a surprising choice not to complete a preparation lap after his out lap on his final run. Acting on a “gut feeling,” he believed skipping the prep lap was beneficial despite the team’s preference to include it, which involved extra fuel weight. Russell commented, “[The time loss for the extra fuel weight is] such a small number, but it’s bigger than the gap to pole. Nevertheless, I’m just happy to be up here.” Meanwhile, Max Verstappen attributed his compromised lap to traffic. He explained, “Already going into (Turn) 12 I had a car very close to me and I already lost time there with the dirty air. And then going into the hairpin, instead of going on the left, I had one car on my right where you normally want to open up the corner. So its a bit of an awkward angle you have to go into the hairpin. Plus you lose your reference on the right-hand side where you are constantly looking. It’s a difficult corner to get right, that killed my lap.” Verstappen remained optimistic, noting the progress he’d made from practice and that he was competitive for pole.

Lando Norris of McLaren was also in contention, having been fastest during the second qualifying session and starting the final round well positioned in third behind Leclerc and Verstappen. However, he was unable to better his lap on the final attempt and settled for sixth place. He admitted, “Just not quick enough that’s all. The lap was incredible in Q2 to put me P1. That was very unrealistic in terms of achieving that again in Q3. I am pretty happy with P6, can’t ask a lot more and pretty happy with the job I did with the car I have.” The top ten featured Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad, and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly rounding out the positions. Lawson was later disqualified for breaching technical rules on the electrical deployment of the power unit and will start from the back of the grid.

Fernando Alonso appeared set for his best qualifying result of the year with Aston Martin after posting the fastest time on his opening lap, outperforming several cars that had been faster throughout the season. Unfortunately, his second attempt was cut short by a water leak in the energy recovery system, forcing him to stop the car on track. Alonso’s frustration was apparent during a brief post-qualifying interview with the official TV channel, where he responded with only nine words to four questions. He confirmed the engine issue, acknowledged the car looked strong all weekend, described the opportunity as “good,” but conceded, “I could not do anything in the race from the back.