Hamilton leads Mercedes 1-2 to take pole for Mexican GP

Rosberg and Hamilton happy driving the Aldo Costa wondermobile

Lewis Hamilton got the most out of his superior Aldo Costa designed Mercedes F1 car and took pole position for the Mexican GP. Hamilton's lap of 1m18.704s was 0.24 sec. faster than his teammate Nico Rosberg.

The Red Bulls will start on the 2nd row with Max Verstappen third 0.350 sec behind Hamilton and his teammate Daniel Ricciardo 0.429 sec behind pole.

Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top-5 while the Ferraris of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel were out to lunch in 6th and 7th respectively.

It was the 10th pole of the season for Lewis Hamilton, and the 59th pole of his career, six behind Aryton Senna.

Q2 saw both Mercedes go through without resorting to supersoft tires, while eliminated were McLaren's Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, split in the times by Force India's Sergio Perez, plus Renault's Kevin Magnussen, Sauber's Marcus Ericsson and Manor's Pascal Wehrlein.

Jolyon Palmer was unable to participate in qualifying after cracking his Renault chassis in final practice. The other five drivers failing to progress beyond Q1 were Haas's Esteban Gutierrez, Toro Rosso's Daniil Kvyat, Sauber's Felipe Nasr, Manor's Esteban Ocon and Haas's Romain Grosjean.

Lewis Hamilton

It's been a really solid weekend so far. Q3 was actually not great for me. Even though I got pole, it wasn't a great lap. I had a pretty serious delta throughout the session before that but then lost quite a lot of time on my first Q3 lap and then more again on my second lap. I just didn't put three sectors together in either of them. If I'd put them all together, I think there was probably another three or four tenths in there. In terms of the race, it's a long, long run down to turn one so the start will be important. But our long run pace has looked really strong and we're on the better tire, so the signs are good. Red Bull might have a slight advantage off the line on the SuperSoft – but it looks like that tire will grain quite badly. As always, our strategist has done a fantastic job there. Looking after the soft tire, avoiding lockups and flat spots will give us a challenge. But the car has been great this weekend, so I hope that continues through tomorrow. This is a race I haven't won yet and I'd love to tick it off the list in front of this amazing crowd, who have been really spectacular all weekend.

Nico Rosberg

Nico Rosberg
This weekend it took a bit longer to find my rhythm. At the end of Qualifying I was quite happy with how I felt in the car and managed to pull out a good lap – but Lewis was just a bit quicker. I'm not happy to have missed out on the pole position. But, on the other hand, starting from second place here is not that bad. There are a lot of opportunities, as the straight down to turn one on the first lap is very long. We've seen a few times this year that pole is not so important. It will be a challenging race and we need to have an eye on the Red Bull. I think the Mexican fans will have an exciting Sunday. It was so great to see so many of them out there today. They are so full of passion and it feels really great to see that when you're out there on track.

Toto Wolff, Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport
We might have both cars on the front row today but that was a really tough qualifying session – and it took some special laps from Lewis and Nico to put us there. Lewis had the performance in the car all day and was able to deliver it when he needed in spite of the threat from Red Bull and Ferrari. This is a tricky circuit for putting together a clean lap but he managed two laps good enough for pole in Q3 and did it by a decent margin. As for Nico, he was having a tougher time through practice and the early parts of qualifying, struggling to get the tires into the right window for his quick lap. He found half a second of performance on his first run in Q3, then another three tenths on the final lap to really pull it out of the bag and put himself P2. It was a great response under some big pressure. Looking at tomorrow, we will start on the Soft tire with two Red Bulls behind us on the SuperSoft. Maybe we will have a small disadvantage off the line, so it will be a very interesting run to the first corner and a big strategic battle after that.

Paddy Lowe, Executive Director (Technical)
We're very pleased to get the front row here today after what was a very tight session. We've seen swings in performance between the top three teams across all three practice sessions, with very little to choose between us. Much of this has been down to who has managed to get the tires switched on at the right moment, with the right circuit conditions. Lewis produced two phenomenal laps to secure pole position. And while Nico had struggled to match his pace up until that point, he pulled it out of the bag at the very last minute when a front row start seemed as if it might elude him. So, overall a tremendous result. Congratulations to both drivers and to the team on a top performance.

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen
I am very pleased with the way qualifying went, we have put ourselves on the second row again which means we are in an ideal position to fight from the start. All weekend we have had a good car. We are still just a little down on top speed which makes it hard to compete with the Mercedes in qualifying, but we are still pretty close so that is a good achievement. My Q2 lap was really good and felt quick but I just couldn't find the same grip levels in Q3 which meant I was slightly slower. I struggled in sector one which is usually my best sector, that shows how the grip can change in a matter of minutes. It's still a hard lap out there, everyone is in the same position and has to adapt to the slippery conditions. It's fun, but a different kind of fun. At some tracks you can have a perfect lap but here it is so hard. It is a long run into Turn 1 and we start on the supersoft compound so our chances of making progress straight away is high. Race pace looked strong which means we are looking forward to tomorrow."

Daniel Ricciardo
I think the fight was there but to be honest, my last lap was terrible. I was fighting it already out of Turn 1 and by Turn 6 I was nearly four tenths slower than my previous lap. We managed to recuperate some of that but looking at the gap to pole it was only four tenths so it could have been a lot better but it also could have been a lot worse. It's just like that with a new surface, it's still very slippery here and it's hard to find that happy medium. In that last run in Q3 we definitely lost some performance, particularly in the first half of the lap but we're still on the second row so that's okay and I'll take that. Let's see what tomorrow brings. I think we can have a good race but to predict what's going to happen tomorrow after this qualifying is difficult.

Christian Horner:
An exciting qualifying and a great performance by both of our drivers to lock out the second row for the eighth time this season. We got mighty close to splitting the Mercedes with Nico just sneaking ahead of Max right at the end. In adopting a different strategy to the cars around us by starting on the supersoft tires tomorrow it creates a strategically interesting race which should make for an exciting grand prix.

Romain Grosjean
I really don't know what's happening. The car was good in FP1 and it was alright on the first run this morning in FP3, but after that it's just gone nowhere. We really need to try to analyze what's going on as something is clearly not going right. Last on the grid is unacceptable for us. Top speed has been fine, but there's no grip and no balance. You can manage poor grip and drive around it if you've got a balanced car, but combined, there's just nothing you can do. One corner will be oversteer, the next understeer. It's weird the way it's behaved here. It's been a rough weekend for everyone, but hopefully we can come back.

Esteban Gutierrez
It's been quite a challenging weekend for us. Heading into qualifying, we knew it wasn't going to be easy, but I really gave it my best. I was driving over the limit trying to put everything together for the team and for the fans — they have been incredible. I had to try to be aggressive as I knew the lap at the beginning of the run may not have been enough. Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don't, but at least I know I gave it the maximum. When I got out of the car, I wasn't very happy, but walking along the pit lane everybody was cheering, and it was an amazing feeling just to see their support. They've made a huge difference to our motivation and I really want to thank them all.

Carlos Sainz
I'm very pleased! It's being a tricky weekend because of the challenging track conditions. If I say the truth, at the start of Q1 I thought it was going to be difficult to get into Q3… And here we are, P10 again for the second consecutive time in one week! It's a massive achievement for me and the team! I'm feeling very confident in the car lately and I think this is part of the reason why we are achieving these positive results: I can push straight away, develop my weekend well and make it to these positions. I'm going through a good moment and both the team and I can be extremely proud about this — what we've been achieving during these two couple of races is not easy! I'm very happy. Tomorrow it will be tough: We don't have the tire-strategy advantage and we will need the supersoft tire to work well during my first stint, as the guys behind will be pushing to get past me. We need to be cautious but we will for sure have some fun!

Daniil Kvyat
What a shame… I suddenly lost power because of an electrical issue after my first Q1 lap, so unfortunately my qualifying session ended early today. I have to say that up until that point I was feeling good in the car, even if the track was constantly changing — I'm sure I would've easily got through to Q2. Let's see what happens in tomorrow's race — it should be an interesting one and we will definitely try and do our best!

Jody Egginton
It has it been all about tires today, managing them in an FP3 program with the lower track temperatures and also in qualifying with higher track temperatures. Both cars completed FP3 programs using the supersoft tires, with Carlos finding a good balance straight away, whilst Daniil's engineers conducted a further set-up adjustment after the baseline run in order to improve the balance further. Changes to both cars ahead of qualifying were limited to fine-tuning for the track temperature change, which meant we headed into qualifying being able to focus on tires and any required aero balance fine-tuning, run to run. Q1 passed without incident for Carlos, while Daniil suffered an electrical issue on the in lap of his first run, which resulted in PU power loss. His mechanics worked hard to isolate the fault and rectify it but, with Daniil's first run unfortunately not being quick enough to make the cut for Q2, the available time was too short to get him back out. With Carlos we elected to run a used supersoft tire for the first run of Q2, following this up with a new supersoft tire, this run being good enough to make Q3. We applied the same approach to Q3, running used then a new tire. However, in line with a few other runners, we were not able to improve the lap time on the new tire so ended up P10. It is a good reward for the effort put in by the team but it also means we need to consider our strategy options carefully, as there are a lot of cars ahead on the soft tire. Our focus now shifts towards the race, trying to construct the best strategies to try and get Daniil forward in the race and, in the case of Carlos, consolidate his qualifying position and then try to move forwards, if the opportunities present themselves. We have seen a lot of track improvement so far this weekend and we expect this to continue into the race. Therefore, there should be opportunities to make good use of the available compounds.

Rob Smedley, Williams Head of Performance Engineering
We tried to see if we could get through on an option tire in Q2, knowing that we had a reasonable margin to get through, but it became clear that this wasn't the case so we put on supersoft tires which got us through reasonably comfortably. It was then a case of maximizing Q3. We did a warm up lap followed by a flying lap to start, but on the second run we tried a different strategy pushing on our first timed lap. We lost a little bit of time at the start of the lap and then found a bit of time at the end. In the end, the lap times were very similar and I think that is the most we could have got out of the cars. Both drivers were happy with the balance, but there was just a general lack of grip out there this afternoon compared to this morning's session. Importantly, we have put ourselves in a reasonable position for the race which is key for our championship hopes, so we need to push on and make the most of it.

Valtteri Bottas
It was a very good qualifying session and we finished more or less where we should have done today. It was a shame we couldn't get through with the option tire because now we're starting the race on supersofts. We just really need to try and be clever with our strategy because there's a big difference between the supersoft, soft and the medium tire on this track in terms of tire life. We need to make sure we get everything right tomorrow. It's a good starting point for the race. We've split the Force India's, so the main thing is we try and be ahead of both of them. We can beat them.

Felipe Massa
That was a very difficult qualifying session. I was struggling to make the tires work. We tried on the preparation lap, and again on the first lap. We tried everything, but I just couldn't make them work. My best lap time was actually this morning when I had more fuel and less deployment on the engine. Then, with everything set up in the perfect way for qualifying, unfortunately I couldn't get a better lap time. Despite that, we are in the top ten. We know that the race tomorrow will be difficult, but we need to concentrate on scoring more points than Force India.

Marcus Ericsson
Another decent qualifying for us. We showed that we are working in the right direction, and it paid off. We can all be satisfied with today's performance. We knew that reaching Q2 would not be an easy task, because the lap times were all close together. It was again nice that I was able to put in a good lap in Q1 and make the jump into Q2. P15 is a decent starting position, and I feel confident that we can continue our hunt for points tomorrow.

Felipe Nasr
Qualifying was not as good as I was expecting. Before FP3 we chose the identical set-up to the other car, but the outcome was completely different. In general I had a lack of grip in a lot of corners phases. At least the other car seems to work, so we have a reference there. I will focus on the race tomorrow, and I am quite confident that I can recover some positions due to the pace we had on the long-runs.

Nico Hulkenberg
It's been a very good qualifying session for me and I am very happy with the result. Our car works pretty well on every circuit nowadays, but I felt it just got better and better through qualifying as the track improved. My first lap in Q3 was mega, possibly my best qualifying lap of the season, and I don't think there was anything more I could extract from it. We need to keep ourselves out of trouble at the start but I won't let what happened last week influence me: every time you get to turn one, there is a unique dynamic and you just have to play it by ear. We have a good idea of where we are for the race and we'll get our head down and build on today's result.

Sergio Perez
It's a shame to miss out on Q3 today, but I'm optimistic we can recover some positions in the race with a strong strategy. In Q2 we went out on the soft tires to see if we could progress to Q3, but for my second run we switched to the supersoft tires. Unfortunately I made a small mistake on my final lap, which ended my chance of qualifying inside the top ten. I just locked up the front tires going into turn one and ran wide. I apologize for the mistake, but I hope I can give all my fans some happiness in the race tomorrow. The good news is that we made some progress with the car in between final practice and qualifying: our race pace looks competitive and I think we can come away with a good result tomorrow.

Robert Fernley, Deputy Team Principal
Overall a satisfying qualifying session for us. Nico has been competitive all weekend and qualifying in fifth place is a fantastic effort — ahead of both Ferraris. Sergio also showed good speed today and made real progress with the car this morning. Had it not been for a small mistake in Q2 he would have joined Nico in the top ten. Starting from P12 will open up some interesting choices in terms of strategy and we are confident he can make progress in the race. It's a huge weekend for us with great support from our Mexican partners and fan base, and we will do all we can to give everybody something to celebrate on Sunday evening.

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