Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was imperious as he put in a storming lap to take pole position at the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix over Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.
Norris was fastest in the opening two sessions at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, but Sainz beat the two championship contenders to bag his first pole in 2024.
With three practice sessions in the book, the moment arrived to settle the starting grid. McLaren commanded proceedings in FP3 as Piastri headed team-mate Norris.
The opening laps saw Verstappen hold a two-tenth gap over Norris as both Ferrari and Mercedes drivers conducted their initial runs on the harder Medium compound.
Williams capitalised on that to have both Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto within the top five, while a mistake saw Piastri in the sister McLaren languish down in 11th.
Elsewhere, Perez was also struggling despite the home fans roaring him on each time he passed the stadium section as he was 18th, 1.5 seconds behind Verstappen.
The Mexican was demoted to last as Alpine’s Pierre Gasly took advantage of an improvement in track conditions to propel up to second, with Nico Hulkenberg in third.
Norris returned to top spot with a 1:16.505s to eclipse Verstappen’s previous benchmark, but Piastri had his next lap time deleted for breaching track limits at Turn 12.
Despite improving on his second timed attempt, Perez was on the bubble in 15th and improvements elsewhere saw him sustain a Q1 elimination on his home tarmac.
The other big shock came down at McLaren as Piastri was out in 18th place, both the Australian and Perez lagging behind Williams’ Franco Colapinto in 16th position.
Along with Colapinto, Piastri and Perez, Esteban Ocon’s Alpine and Sauber’s Guanyu Zhou were resigned to premature exits, as Norris fronted the times going into Q2.
The second session started with normal service resumed as the title rivals were the top two. Once more it was advantage Norris with a three-tenth gap to Verstappen.
Mercedes unlocked pace on the Softs to have Russell third and Hamilton fourth, with Sainz leading Ferrari’s charge in fifth as Charles Leclerc had his time invalidated.
Heading into the closing stages, the two Haas drivers – Kevin Magnussen and then Nico Hulkenberg – Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas completed the drop with Leclerc.
However, Leclerc changed that with a much more competitive lap to go behind team-mate Sainz into fourth position, but still over three-tenths behind Norris’ best lap.
Leclerc produced that effort at the right moment as seconds later Yuki Tsunoda, who had excelled all weekend in practice, crashed at Turn 12 to bring out the red flag.
The second segment would not be restarted with 10 seconds remaining on the clock, which hindered several drivers who were endeavouring to escape the drop zone.
That included Tsunoda’s RB team-mate, Liam Lawson, in 12th position, along with Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll in the two Aston Martin cars, plus Bottas’ Sauber.
But Tsunoda’s incident was good for Haas as it meant both drivers advanced into Q3. Albon and Gasly also progressed in the sole remaining Alpine and Williams cars.
Norris went into the crucial Q3 stage as the likeliest candidate to seize pole position, but it was Verstappen who had the upper hand on the first runs with a 1:16.368s.
Sainz, though, posted a superb lap moments later to go three-tenths quicker than the Dutchman, who had his time deleted as he exceeded track limits through Turn 2.
Verstappen’s lap deletion moved Leclerc up to second to make it a provisional Ferrari front row, while Russell led Hamilton in a Mercedes 3-4. Norris was down in fifth.
Sainz improved another tenth on his original time which was enough to hand him a first pole position this season as both Verstappen and then Norris wound up short.
The Spaniard was the sole driver to break into the 1:15s as he propped up 0.225s quicker than Verstappen, who was under a tenth faster than Norris’ McLaren in third.
Leclerc made a mistake as he put the throttle down out the final corner and paid the price as he was fourth, three positions and 0.319s behind his team-mate on pole.
Mercedes could not equal the competition at the sharp end when it mattered and that resigned Russell and Hamilton to securing a third-row lock-out in fifth and sixth.
Magnussen headed the pack behind in seventh place as Gasly in eighth and Albon in ninth separated the two Haas drivers with Hulkenberg, without a time, the top 10.
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