Bottas takes pole position as Mercedes lock out the front row at the Mexican Grand Prix

Valtteri Bottas clinched pole position at the 2021 Mexican Grand Prix in the eighteenth race of the 2021 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

Lewis Hamilton had to be content with second position and will start from the first row. Max Verstappen finished in third position. The Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team have locked out the front row for the race on Sunday.

The qualifying session at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez circuit in Mexico City took place under sunny conditions with air temperatures at 21 degree C and track temperatures at 45 degree C.

The Pirelli tyre choice at this race is the white-striped hard compound tyres (C2), yellow-striped medium compound tyres (C3), and red-striped soft compound tyres (C4).

Q1: Alonso Eliminated

The eighteen-minute long first qualifying session got underway and the first drivers on the track were the Uralkali Haas F1 Team drivers and Nicholas Latifi.

There was hectic activity in the Red Bull Racing garage as they worked on Verstappen’s rear-wing.

Kimi Räikkönen set the first timed lap. Charles Leclerc went to the top of the time charts with a lap time of 1m17.991s.

Lance Stroll crashed as he came out of the final turn and brought out the red flags with ten minutes and fifty-eight seconds left. Only seven drivers had set a timed lap at this point.

The debris was cleared and the barriers repaired before the session resumed.

Verstappen went to the top of the time charts with a lap time of 1m16.788s, 0.663s faster than team-mate Pérez.

In the dying minutes of the session with track evolution, Bottas went to the top of the time charts with Leclerc in second position.

Q1 dropzone: Fernando Alonso, Nicholas Latifi, Mick Schumacher, Nikita Mazepin, Lance Stroll

Q2: Hamilton tops the session as Vettel is knocked out

The drivers went out on the medium compound tyres which seems the favoured tyre to start the race on.

Verstappen went to the top of the time charts with a lap time of 1m 16.483s. Hamilton was just 0.016 seconds behind in second position.

In the dying minutes of the session, Hamilton displaced Verstappen at the top of the time charts as he went 0.009 seconds faster.

Antonio Giovinazzi brought out the yellow flags briefly but the drivers behind him were able to complete their laps.

Q2 dropzone: Sebastian Vettel, Kimi Räikkönen, George Russell, Antonio Giovinazzi, Esteban Ocon

Q3: Bottas snatches pole position

The all-important twelve minute-long final shootout started with the drivers jostling for position to get a slipstream along the long straights.

Bottas was on provisional pole with a lap time of 1m15.875s and Hamilton was 0.145 seconds back as he slotted into second position. Verstappen did not have a good lap and was 0.350 seconds behind the leader.

On the second run, Pérez was giving a tow to Verstappen and went off the track and the Dutchman locked up for good measure as he lost pole position.

Bottas took pole position as none of the drivers behind him improved and Mercedes locked out the front row.

Top 10: Valtteri Bottas, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, Sergio Pérez, Pierre Gasly, Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo, Charles Leclerc, Yuki Tsunoda, Lando Norris

2021 Mexican GP Qualification Results:

Pos	No	Driver	Nat.	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:16.727	1:16.864	1:15.875	23
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:17.207	1:16.474	1:16.020	22
3	33	Max Verstappen	NED	Red Bull Racing	1:16.788	1:16.483	1:16.225	18
4	11	Sergio Perez	MEX	Red Bull Racing	1:17.003	1:17.055	1:16.342	18
5	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:16.908	1:16.955	1:16.456	22
6	55	Carlos Sainz	ESP	Scuderia Ferrari	1:17.517	1:17.248	1:16.761	23
7	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	McLaren F1 Team	1:17.719	1:17.092	1:16.763	17
8	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:16.748	1:17.034	1:16.837	22
9	22	Yuki Tsunoda	JAP	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:17.330	1:16.701	1:17.158	19
10	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1:17.569	1:17.473	1:36.830	19
11	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1:17.502	1:17.746		16
12	7	Kimi Räikkönen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	1:17.606	1:17.958		18
13	63	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	1:17.958	1:18.172		13
14	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN	1:17.897	1:18.290		15
15	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Alpine F1 Team	1:18.126	1:18.405		13
16	14	Fernando Alonso	ESP	Alpine F1 Team	1:18.452			7
17	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1:18.756			8
18	47	Mick Schumacher	GER	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1:18.858			9
19	9	Nikita Mazepin	RAF	Uralkali Haas F1 Team	1:19.303			9
20	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team	1:20.873			3