Scuderia
Ferrari drivers
Charles Leclerc and
Carlos Sainz secured front-row lockout for the 2023
Mexico City Grand Prix.
Mexico City Grand Prix Qualifying brought an unexpected series of events when
Fernando Alonso on
Aston Martin spun around in the second corner during the final part of Q1.
The drivers that put in their laps in earlier parts of the session were fine, but
Lando Norris got caught by the yellow flags in the first sector and, consequently, did not make it into the second part of Qualifying.
Other drivers caught out by the yellow flags were
Kevin Magnussen on
Haas,
Lance Stroll on Aston Martin,
Esteban Ocon on
Alpine, and
Logan Sargeant on
Williams.
Yuki Tsunoda helped his
AlphaTauri teammate
Daniel Ricciardo in the first and the second part of qualifying by giving him a tow on the main straight to save some valuable time.
Tsunoda sacrificed his own lap time and fell out of qualifying as a result.
Alex Albon got his time deleted for track limits and, therefore, placed P15.
Fernando Alonso,
Pierre Gasly, and
Nico Hulkenberg also lacked the pace needed to advance into the further part of the qualifying session at
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
The third part of qualifying brought the biggest surprises. While
Mercedes drivers
Lewis Hamilton and
George Russell were fast enough for only sixth and eighth positions, Daniel Ricciardo managed to score P4.
The Honey Badger finished in front of the home hero
Sergio Perez on
Red Bull in fifth place and will start from the second row on Sunday's race.
Alfa Romeo drivers
Valtteri Bottas and
Zhou Guanyu finished P9 and P10.
Oscar Piastri, who won the Sprint race in Qatar, finished the Q3 in P7.
What comes as a big shock after Charles Leclerc
downplayed the performance of the Ferrari is the front lockout by Carlos Sainz in P2 and Leclerc himself in P1.
The Championship winner,
Max Verstappen, finished in P3, which is a good starting place for the Grand Prix race on Sunday, as he will get a tow from the two Ferraris down the main straight into turn one.
Position | Driver | Team | Time |
1. | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1.17.166 |
2. | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | +0.067 |
3. | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | +0.097 |
4. | Daniel Ricciardo | AlphaTauri | +0.216 |
5. | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | +0.257 |
6. | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | +0.288 |
7. | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | +0.457 |
8. | George Russel | Mercedes | +0.508 |
9. | Valtteri Bottas | Alfa Romeo | +0.866 |
10. | Zhou Guanyu | Alfa Romeo | +0.884 |
11. | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | +1.355 |
12. | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | +1.358 |
13. | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | +1.572 |
14. | Alexander Albon | Williams | +1.981 |
15. | Yuki Tsunoda | AlphaTauri | No Time |
16. | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | 1.19.080 |
17. | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | 1.19.163 |
18. | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1.19.227 |
19. | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1.21.554 |
20. | Logan Sargeant | Williams | No Time |