Mexican Grand Prix, qualifying: Great Sainz and Ferrari on pole

We witnessed a truly exciting and dramatic qualification, where a surprising result emerged: Carlos Sainz will start tomorrow from pole position!

After the first fast laps of Q1, Max Verstappen jumped to the lead, but the drivers behind him were frequently changing positions. Pierre Gasly, Nico Hülkenberg, and later Verstappen also lost the lead to Lando Norris. In the end, Norris won the first segment ahead of Carlos Sainz and Verstappen, while surprisingly, the eliminated drivers included Oscar Piastri, Sergio Perez, Franco Collapinto, Esteban Ocon, and Guanyu Zhou.

Q2 was also about the duo of Norris and Verstappen, but the Mercedes cars caught up behind them. However, the Scuderia Ferrari seemed to be struggling at this point. During the second attempts, the Reds made significant improvements, allowing Sainz to catch up with the Norris-Verstappen pair who won Q2. Many were not so lucky, as those who started their second fast laps late could not finish due to an accident and a red flag. In this segment, the two Aston Martins, the two VISA Racing Bulls, and Valtteri Bottas were eliminated.

After the first attempts of Q3, surprisingly, we saw the names Sainz, Leclerc, and Russell at the top, while Norris and Verstappen only occupied the fifth and tenth places. However, Carlos Sainz was very focused and found no one to defeat him that evening. The Spaniard secured a smooth pole position ahead of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, giving him a serious chance to bid farewell to the Italian team with a victory.