Formula 1 front runner Max Verstappen suffered an unexpected setback in the hunt for his first title. In the exciting qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix, the clearly favored Red Bull driver had to settle for third place on Saturday. Surprisingly, the Finn Valtteri Bottas put his Mercedes on pole position, second was Verstappen’s championship rival Lewis Hamilton. “Third place is not great, but there will still be a big fight,” Verstappen said.
The silver Arrow duo themselves seemed a little surprised that they had suddenly conquered the first row of the grid after the clear gap in the trainings. “Valtteri did a great job, I’m so proud of him,” Hamilton said. The Briton is twelve points behind Verstappen in the overall standings before the fifth-to–last round of the season on Sunday (20.00 CET in the F.A.Z. live ticker for Formula 1 and on Sky) – and can now hope to reduce this gap. “We worked so hard. We didn’t think we had the pace this weekend,“ said defending champion Hamilton.
Actually, at an altitude of more than 2200 meters above sea level, the Mercedes engine was considered weaker compared to the Honda engine of the Red Bulls. But once again, this already wild season had a surprise in store. “It felt great to drive the car,” enthused Bottas.
Formula 1 Drivers’ championship
After a year of corona forced break, tens of thousands of fans lined the track on the former Olympic site again. More than 350,000 tickets were sold for the three Grand Prix days. Spectacular pictures are provided above all by the rides through the converted baseball stadium just before the home stretch. Sergio Perez, in particular, is at the center of the enthusiasm this weekend. No Mexican has ever won his Formula 1 home race.
But the qualification was a disappointment for him and his Red Bull team. On Friday, Verstappen had set the clear best time in practice, on Saturday morning Perez and he had also left the Mercedes duo far behind. But when it counted, the favorites patched. “It looks like we lost the balance a little bit,” Verstappen explained. To make matters worse, Yuki Tsunoda and Perez’s brakes interfered with Verstappen’s time chase on the last lap, he briefly went off the gas and no longer had a chance to set the best time. Perez was fourth.
