Formula One: Ferrari On Top As Carlos Sainz Takes Pole In Mexico As Lando Norris Takes Third

It was a good day for Ferrari fans as Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz took pole in the qualifying session of the Mexican Grand Prix. It was a season first pole for Carlos Sainz as he will start at the front of the grid for the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday. Carlos Sainz will be followed by current F1 champion Max Verstappen who will be looking to extend his lead at the top of the table in the Drivers Championship. The top 3 is finished by Max Verstappen's championship rival Lando Norris who will start third. 

Carlos Sainz Takes Pole Heading Into Mexican Grand Prix

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr. won his first pole of the season at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, and Sergio Perez's miserable Formula 1 season continued when he failed to advance out of the first round of qualifying at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

“Very happy and great couple of laps, a lot of times around Mexico you always have a feeling you cannot put a lap together and it's extremely difficult,” Sainz said. “Honestly, my two laps were pretty much identical, almost perfect. Very happy because that's not normally the case around Mexico with how tricky it is.” Three-time defending champion Max Verstappen, who had an engine change Saturday, qualified second for Red Bull. Verstappen is a five-time winner in Mexico City.

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Lando Norris of McLaren, who is chasing Verstappen for the driver championship, qualified third and was followed by Charles Leclerc of Ferrari, who won the United States Grand Prix last week.

Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton qualified fifth and sixth, while Kevin Magnussen of Haas was seventh. Pierre Gasly of Alpine, Alex Albon of Williams and Nico Hülkenberg of Haas rounded out the top 10.

But the focus in Mexico City is on Perez, who is under intense pressure to keep his seat with Red Bull after he signed a contract extension in June.

Sergio Perez Continues To Struggle 

His poor performance this season — he's winless for the first time since joining the team in 2021, is eighth in the driver standings and has crashed three times — has played a role in McLaren passing Red Bull for the lead in the constructors' championship race. 

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Perez was visibly annoyed after his poor qualifying effort and said his car is not performing to his liking.

“It's too bad, I have many problems with slowing down the car, many problems," he said. "Every time I try to break, I don't have the grip, that's the main problem. We see the problem and we know the problem that we have, it doesn't have a quick fix.” He will start 18th on Sunday at a track notoriously difficult to pass and where he crashed on the first lap last year. He said his strategy for the race is recovery.

“Get some points and minimize the damages, it's the best we can do,” he said. ”It's a long race where anything can happen, we are going to give everything. This is the weekend when I want to do my best, unfortunately we have not been able to achieve it.” Although team principal Christian Horner insisted multiple times this weekend that Perez is under contract at Red Bull for 2025 — with an option for 2026 — there are performance clauses that could cost Perez his seat at the end of the season.

“I think he's summed it up perfectly — it's been a bad year for Checo,” Horner said Friday. "We know what he's capable of and we're hoping that we can give him a set-up and the confidence in the car to extract the kind of performances that we know he's very capable of.

“Checo's our driver. He's contracted for 2025. He's competitive. He's hungry. He's not happy with where he currently is. So as a team, we're doing our very best to support him,” Horner continued. “Obviously, big weekend for him here, huge support.” But he flopped in qualifying, which bodes poorly for Sunday when he needs to perform. And it is puzzling to Red Bull considering Verstappen qualified second just one day after suffering through massive engine issues. 

(With PTI Inputs)