F1 Grand Prix, GP Mexico, Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez

Lando Norris will start today’s Mexico City Grand Prix at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez from pole position, while Ferrari drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton delivered Ferrari's best qualifying result of the season with a second and third place. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo delivers drivers' reactions.

McLaren

"Not the Qualifying I was after. I’ve been struggling for pace this weekend, and that continued into this session. It’s a long run to Turn 1 tomorrow, so let’s see what we can learn this evening and what we can do to unlock the pace.”

"Pole position! I'm very pleased with that. It was a great final lap; it felt very natural, and to come out with Pole by that margin is a very good feeling. We've still got a lot of work to do tomorrow, so we'll get our heads down this evening and get ourselves ready for the race."

Ferrari

"The car has been really good today and over the course of this weekend. On a track like this with such low grip, even the smallest of mistakes is costly though.

„I’m happy with both of my laps in Q3. The temperatures dropped slightly, which helped to improve the grip and the car reacted well.

"The race start will be our opportunity to try and get alongside Lando and take the lead. It would mean a lot to the whole team to secure a victory, so I will do everything to bring it home."

"I’m really happy to be up here in the top three alongside Charles, it’s a great result for the team and one they truly deserve. We haven’t brought any upgrades this weekend, so the focus has been on improving our processes and extracting everything we can from the car.

„That approach is what made the difference today. Qualifying in third has put me in a good position to really fight tomorrow and I’ll be giving it everything I can to build on the good momentum we’ve had so far this weekend. Grazie a tutti: the tifosi, the team here at the track and everyone back at home."

Mercedes

"I am reasonably happy with how qualifying went today. On pure single lap pace, Lando (Norris) and both Ferraris seemed to have a step on us, so the next best possible position was P4. That’s exactly where we ended up.

„It was all very close out there; Piastri was just one tenth behind me and he was P8. Being ahead of both him and Verstappen gives us a good chance of fighting for the podium in tomorrow’s race.

"It's a long run to turn one, and it will be a long race after that, so let’s see what we can do. We have both Ferraris ahead of us on the grid and, given how close the fight is for second in the Constructors’ Championship, getting in the mix with them tomorrow is crucial. We had decent long run pace on Friday and hopefully we can deploy that tomorrow."

"I had a scrappy Q1 and was struggling to find my rhythm. That put me in a slightly unfavourable position for the rest of qualifying, needing to improve on my last laps in both Q1 and Q2. I managed to improve as qualifying went on though and Q3 was my cleanest session. P6 and being only a few tenths off the front-row, wasn’t a bad result in the end.

"Tomorrow should be a great fight. There are plenty ofunknowns going into the race and all three compounds look like they could be useful tyres. The start, given the long run to turn one, is going to be very important.

„If we can get away well, we can then hopefully put ourselves in a positive position to fight for positions ahead. That’s going to be key with both Ferraris lining up ahead of us."

Red Bull

“We tried a lot of things on the car but unfortunately in Qualifying it just didn’t really come together. It wasn’t for lack of trying: in some areas we had improved and in some it was worse which overall just made it very difficult to drive.

„Unfortunately, the balance was unpredictable and we couldn’t push and were sliding a lot more, which on a track like this isn’t good. We just had no grip and not enough pace and the weekend hasn’t really been that good for us. For the long runs tomorrow, it is very difficult to say but I’m not expecting it to be miles better than the one lap pace and it will be difficult to overtake. I’ll try to do the best I can, I think it will be quite spicy with the cars ahead and it will be warm and tough on tyres.

„The most important thing will be to stay out of trouble as it is a very long race. We will try to do the best that we can and maximise everything possible.”

"As it's been for most of the season the gap between Q2 and Q3 has been so tight, so it's unfortunate to be on the other end and miss out by such a small margin. I've felt good in the car this weekend, but we just didn't have the grip in Qualifying that we had hoped for, and in a field like this you sometimes lose out.

„I had a clean session and I always try and take the positives as tomorrow will bring new opportunities where the long run has seemed good. I stayed close to Max's delta and that's a good sign as that's always been the target for me in this Team.

„I'll start P10, so with maximum focus from the start we can try and push through and score some good points for the Constructors' as we're still in that fight for P2."

Williams

Alex Albon, 17th, 1:17.490
"The conditions were very different between sessions, and I had a lot less grip in qualifying than in FP3. We’ve been chasing the feel of the car all weekend, never feeling totally comfortable or hitting our stride.

„I felt like the track got away from me in qualifying and we were sliding around a lot today, I never really found the grip that I needed. We fixed some things ahead of qualifying, but were also dealing with a potential issue with the brakes, so there’s a lot to analyse and debrief as a team to see what we can do to improve.

„It’s usually one-stop racing here in Mexico so we’ll see what happens tomorrow and hopefully we can finish the weekend stronger than we started."

"That was probably my best qualifying lap of the season. I’m enjoying the feeling in the car and today we executed a very solid qualifying. We’ll take the positives and refocus on tomorrow.

„It’s a shame we have to serve that penalty as it will definitely make our race tougher with the dirty air and the cooling. However, I have confidence in my race pace and we’ll do all we can to fight back into the points.

„I also want to say thank you to the fans here; their support is truly something special and it’s incredible to drive around this circuit listening to all their cheers!"

Racing Bulls

"I’m very happy about my team and the way we bounced back from yesterday. We worked really hard overnight, making some changes to the car and we went in the right direction. It definitely paid off as it helped us get into Q3 today.

„I think I did a decent job in terms of driving, I felt like I was on it straight away in Q1, but then we went a bit over the limit before doing a good final lap. Tomorrow I really want to fight to come back into the points after a difficult weekend we had in Austin. There are several different scenarios that can happen in Turn 1 since it’s quite far away from the grid, so we have to take every opportunity that might present.”

"The car was fast today and we had a strong Q1. In Q2, I struggled with the balance and a mistake on the first lap made the rest of the session quite tricky. The second lap wasn't very strong, so the team decided to abort and use a used tyre at the end.

„We ended up even slower, so it's something we'll be reviewing. It will be tough given where we're starting from tomorrow, but we'll be working hard as a team to push for points.”

Haas

“Well done to the team because we’ve clearly improved the qualifying pace that I was struggling with recently. It’s been a strong session in terms of car feeling, so I’m happy with that. It’s very unfortunate to miss out on Q3.

„It was the last lap of Q2 really, we had the pace, and we were P5 heading into the run, but it just wasn’t a great lap as I was in the dirty air of Tsunoda and Leclerc. They didn’t do anything wrong, but it was just a case of the wrong place, wrong time, as I was in that dirty air and lost the rear into the last sector.

„Three hundredths is what we needed to get into Q3, and I think we could’ve gone P5 if I was able to continue to put in the sector times I was putting in before.”

“Overall, I’m happy. I think we optimized the package that we had today, and I’m super happy with that lap. Being the first car out on track is not ideal, but then again, we were missing a bit of lap time to be fighting for anything other than P9 or P10.

„I feel good about tomorrow, as with the pace that we showed on high-fuel yesterday – I feel confident, as that was the good part of yesterday. I’m really looking forward to the race tomorrow.”

Kick Sauber

“I’m not super happy with how qualifying went, as we thought there was a bit more potential after the pace we showed in practice. It felt like we were close to the limit but just couldn’t quite extract the extra couple of tenths needed for Q3.

„The laps were clean and consistent, but the pace wasn’t quite there. Still, we’re in the mix and tomorrow’s race is another opportunity. The field is very tight, so we’ll look carefully at our strategy options and give it everything to come away with a strong result.”
Gabriel Bortoleto, 16th, 1:17.412

“It’s a bit of a shame, to be honest. The first two laps of qualifying felt quite strong, but I wasn’t able to put everything together on the final push with the new softs. I struggled to find the grip I needed across the lap, and in the end, the lap just didn’t come together as we hoped.
„The pace was definitely there, which makes it even more frustrating. It’s a tough track for overtaking, so tomorrow won’t be easy, but we’ll give it everything. There’s still a lot to play for, and we’ll aim to make the most of every opportunity in the race.”

Aston Martin

"We've been struggling for pace today and I think it was the maximum we could achieve in Qualifying. It was very low grip out there, but it was the same for everyone.

„Let's see what happens in the first few corners tomorrow, as it's tight into the chicanes and there might be something to gain there. We will give it our all and try to fight for points."

"The car was feeling OK in FP3, but there was just no grip in Qualifying and this happens a lot – there's good grip in the practice sessions and then we go into Qualifying and we struggle. We'll see what we can do tomorrow; it will be another tough race for us starting from the back. We will obviously try to make up positions, but it's a very different kind of track with the high altitude."

Alpine

“Considering how much we seemed to struggle yesterday, it felt like we did a better job today to at least close the gap to some of the cars ahead and, in the end, we were only a couple of tenths off reaching Q2. Since yesterday, the car has felt very difficult to drive, sliding a lot, lacking grip, and we have been far off the pace.

„We knew it would be difficult here so it has been good to make some steps forward and get on top of a couple of issues, which we faced in Practice. Tomorrow, we know it will be tough. We need something to happen in front of us and we will give it our best go as always.”

“Given how the car was feeling on Friday, I probably expected a bit more from Qualifying. We started the weekend well and had some good Practice sessions but, as a team, we seem to be struggling here, particularly on the bumps and kerbs.

„I was pushing on my final run and hit the kerb which destabilised the car and prevented me from improving on my lap time. To get the most performance out of the car we tend to run it quite stiff, which also means it's hard to put a consistent lap together, especially here.

„On high fuel yesterday, the car felt better and the lap times seemed more competitive. It will be difficult from where we are starting the race, but we'll fight and try our best to recover some positions tomorrow.”