It was Ferrari’s Sainz’s chance to shine in a season when variety has been more frequent than dominance. He’ll be on the pole for Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix.
MEXICO CITY, Mexico—It has been a year since Carlos Sainz took an impressive victory in Singapore. However, on Saturday, the Spaniard proved that he could still be in the running for another victory by taking pole with a time of 1:15:946 over title contenders Max Verstappen and Lando Norris at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. The Ferrari driver set the fastest time midway through the final qualifying session, which his Dutch and British rivals could not match.
It was a welcome relief for Sainz and something he had been waiting for. But what was on Sainz’s mind was not his qualifying performance but how he would approach the start on race day.
Carlos Sainz: The most significant difficulty will probably be running into Turn One and starting on the pole with a slipstream. I need to ensure I do a good 0-100km/h, which is the most important thing when you start on the pole; just make sure you do a good jump. And from there, I will do the best I can to defend.
Sainz’s teammate, Charles Leclerc, took fourth, with the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton finishing in the successive two positions in fifth and sixth, respectively. Haas F1’s Kevin Magnussen took seventh, with his teammate, Nico Hulkenberg, finishing in tenth. Those results could give the American team an excellent chance to remain in sixth in the Constructors Championship ahead of RB, who did not have their two drivers qualify in the top ten.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly also performed well in qualifying, placing eighth, while Williams Alex Albon did the same in ninth.
Several big names failed to advance to the final round of qualifying. Home hero Sergio Perez was one, and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was another. Those outcomes could have an impact on the Constructor’s Championship as well. In addition to RB, Perez, and Piastri, other teams affected were Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda, who crashed at the end of the period, ending the session with a red flag before restarting the final period with ten drivers remaining. Another team, Aston Martin, had Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso exiting the same period.
Racing on Sunday will air on ABC television starting at 4 PM Eastern.
