The two-time champion catches the ‘pole’, ahead of Russell and Hamilton, while Sainz starts fifth and Alonso, ninth.
The push that Mercedes had been showing during the weekend was held by Max Verstappenwho completed his sixth race at the Hermanos Rodríguez Autodromo pole of the year (1:17.775), with which on Sunday he will seek to break the record for victories in a World Cup. The two-time champion led by three tenths George Russell Y Lewis Hamilton, protagonists of the best qualifying session of the Silver Arrows, who will have the slipstream of the Red Bull to attack at the start. Farther they will go Carlos Sainzfifth and Fernando Alonsoninth, without options to fight for the positions of privilege.
Almost 58 hundredths from the lead, Sainz could only give himself the small joy of overtaking charles leclerchis teammate at Ferrari, who will start seventh, just behind the surprising Valtteri Bottas. “We are not going fast with little fuel. Both Charles and I made mistakes because the car was very difficult to drive. When the car is so unpredictable, doing a full lap is impossible,” said the man from Madrid, aware of the difficulties of this track. , located at more than 2,200 meters of altitude.
Unlike what happened in the previous 19 appointments, Ferrari seems to have focused its efforts on optimizing the performance of its car for Sunday, given that its 12 poles previous ones only materialized in four victories. Waiting for what happens when the lights go out, with almost a kilometer until the first corner, the truth is that Mercedes and Ferrari still seem to have arguments against Red Bull.
12-8 against Ocon
For now, Verstappen has already given joy to the almost 400,000 fans who will come to the Mexican track this weekend, adding his signature to a list of poleman which in recent years has included Sebastian Vettel (2017), Daniel Ricciardo (2018) or the aforementioned Hamilton (2016), Leclerc (2019) and Bottas (2021). The irruption of the Finn from Alfa Romeo, sixth, contrasted with the debacle of the four-time champion, eliminated in Q1 along with Lance Stroll, his partner at Aston Martin. “I can’t believe it. We were too slow,” Vettel lamented.
Something better rolled on Saturday for Fernando Alonsowho achieved ninth place, just ahead of Stephen Ocon, after completing a single attempt in Q3 (1:18.939). With the brand new floor provided by Alpine, the Spaniard did not find the speed that he was able to exhibit, even with ups and downs, after returning from vacation. In fact, his plight began to show during Q2, when he could only keep going by leading 53 thousandths over Daniel Ricciardo.
“We have worked on cooling, so that the car survives with high temperatures. The soft tires have not worked for us, so we will try to avoid them for Sunday,” Alonso analyzed in the DAZN microphones, aware of the bleeding of his A522 along along the first sector. Another consolation, albeit a minor one, is finishing the World Cup with an advantage over Ocon in the qualifying sessions, in which he already leads the French 12-8.
“Draconian? An exaggeration”
In any case, the pole de Verstappen redeemed Red Bull from a very delicate weekend in Mexico, where on Friday he learned of the FIA sanction for having exceeded the budget limit during the 2021 World Cup. The Austrian team has received a fine of seven million dollars and a reduction of 10% of its aerodynamic tests during the next 12 months for exceeding the legal ceiling by 2.1 million euros.
Christian Horner, main team of Red Bull, described this decision as “draconian” and estimated that it will translate into a deficit of 0.25 and 0.5 seconds per lap during the next two seasons. It should be noted that the 2022 champions will only have 63% of the testing time in the wind tunnel compared to the team that finishes seventh this World Cup. Ferrari and Mercedes will have 75% and 80%, respectively, if they maintain second and third place.
Horner’s arguments, however, did not convince his two great opponents, who in recent hours have reiterated their criticism. “We are concerned that this sanction will have a very limited real effect,” argued Laurent Meckies, sporting director of Ferrari. Describing the punishment as draconian is an exaggeration, Andrew Shovlin, director of engineering at Mercedes. Without forgetting the point of view of McLaren, which had been pointing out the irregularities of Red Bull in recent weeks. “The bad thing is that the sanction does not adjust to the infraction. I hope that in the future we will have stricter penalties,” he revealed. Andreas Seidlhead of the Woking squire.
According to the criteria of
Know more
