George Russell is going to be right in the mix for victory in Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix, after qualifying second at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, three-tenths behind polesitter Max Verstappen.
Russell has looked strong all weekend in Mexico, topping Free Practice Two and Free Practice Three prior to the all-important Saturday session. The Brit was on-track to claim pole position as he exited the second sector, but ran wide at Turn Twelve, both ruining his final lap and deleting his lap due to exceeding track limits.
Pole isn’t necessarily the place to be, though, at this circuit, with the last four polesitters having gone on to finish outside the top three on Sunday.
Russell “felt like pole” was possible and was left “kicking” himself after making the crucial error on his final lap.
“It feels like the team deserved more today – the car has been great this weekend and it’s a testament to the hard work that has been going in for so long. At this high altitude, drag is less of a factor for us on the straights, and the update we brought to Austin is performing well. We saw last week with Lewis what the car was capable of, and this weekend, it felt like pole position was there for us.
“I’m kicking myself about the final run, but at the end of the day, there are no points for qualifying and I’m excited to be back on the front row. We will be going for it in the race and our long runs looked decent yesterday, so I’m excited to go racing and see what we’ve got.”
“This is the best qualifying we’ve had all year” – Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton is also right in the mix for victory on Sunday, after securing third place on the grid. Hamilton topped Qualifying One and Qualifying Two, but saw his first lap in Qualifying Three deleted after exceeding track limits at Turn Two. Replays showed that Hamilton clearly cut across too much of the kerb on the inside of the corner, meaning there was no argument to say he didn’t exceed the limits.
This meant the seven-time World Champion couldn’t fully exploit the pace of the W13 on his final lap, with it being crucial to get a valid lap in. His final lap saw him finish the session just +0.005 seconds behind his team-mate; however, Hamilton arguably has the better starting position.
Hamilton will be right in the tow of Verstappen down into the opening corner, giving him the best chance of remaining in the top three out of the opening sequence of corners.
It was by far the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team‘s best Saturday of the season, leaving the Brit feeling “proud”.
“I’m proud of the team – this is the best qualifying we’ve had all year. It just shows that you can never give up, and that perseverance is the way forward, so a big thank you to everybody here and back at the factory. In terms of the laps, they were pretty closely matched, but obviously when the first one is deleted, you have to make sure the second is completely clean.
“There was still more performance in it but it’s great to be so close to the Red Bull cars after we have been chasing them each weekend this year. So, we will just keep pushing, and I’m pretty happy starting from P3. It’s a long way down to Turn One…”
Credit: Steve Etherington