Photo courtesy of Formula 1
Max Verstappen won the pole for the 2022 Mexican Grand Prix in pursuit of a record 14th win in a Formula 1 season on Saturday. The Dutchman is a three-time winner at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez with wins in 2017, 2018 and 2021. However, none of those wins came from pole position.
His pole lap in Q3 was a blistering 1:17.775, nearly three-tenths faster than George Russell, who finished as the fastest driver in the second and third practice sessions.
Mercedes has not won a race since Lewis Hamilton won the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix last December. On Saturday, Mercedes put themselves in position to achieve a strong result on Sunday at Mexico City as Russell and Hamilton, who won the 2016 and 2019 Mexico City GP, will start second and third respectively. It is the best start for Russell since starting second at Monza.
All eyes will be on Sergio Perez as the Mexican driver will push for a second-consecutive podium in his home race. He’ll roll out in fourth place.
Ferrari finished 1-2 in the first practice session (Carlos Sainz fastest), but things went awry in the second session as Charles Leclerc suffered a huge crash in Turn 8 after losing the grip on his rear tires. He suffered damage that caused understeer in FP3.
Qualifying saw Ferrari post their worst Q3 combined result of the season with Sainz and Leclerc finishing fifth and seventh respectively. Valtteri Bottas split the two Ferrari drivers by returning to his early season form with a sixth-place result in Q3.
Lando Norris and the two Alpine drivers, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon will round out the top 10.
The first practice session saw five drivers give way to up-and-comers as Pietro Fittipaldi (Haas), Logan Sargeant (Williams), Nyck de Vries (Mercedes), Jack Doohan (Alpine) and Liam Lawson (AlphaTauri) all got time on the track to start the weekend.
All five drivers finished in the bottom five in terms of speed with Lawson and Fittipaldi having to retire from the session early due to mechanical issues.
If you are watching in the United States, coverage for the 2022 Mexican Grand Prix will start at 4:00 p.m. EST. The race will run 71 laps over 2.674 miles each. You can catch the race on ESPN.
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