Mexico City GP Qualifying: Hamilton Edges Russell as Piastri Slips

Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix, beating George Russell by just 0.009 seconds in a tense qualifying session at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. While the front row was settled by the thinnest sliver of time, the genuine shock of the afternoon came in Q2, where McLaren‘s Oscar Piastri slumped to 13th overall.

Piastri failed to find any rhythm in the second phase, clocking a 1:17.646 to end up stranded outside the top ten while teammate Lando Norris safely progressed to take sixth. At the same time, Alpine enjoyed the opposite fortune, watching Pierre Gasly punch his way into Q3 to claim tenth on the grid while Franco Colapinto missed out in 12th.

Hamilton Ends the Long Wait for Ferrari

Hamilton’s decisive lap of 1:16.514 delivered his 105th career pole position and his first in Ferrari colours. To my eye, this stands as one of the most remarkable qualifying displays of his career. I think it is easy to forget how long he has waited for this moment: it ends a drought of 1,197 days since he last took pole at the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix, where he pipped Max Verstappen by 0.003 seconds. At 41 years, 9 months and 24 days, he also becomes the fifth-oldest polesitter in Formula 1 history, securing Ferrari’s first pole of the 2026 campaign.

Russell looked poised to spoil the party after clocking a 1:16.523, but missed out by nine thousandths. Charles Leclerc completed the top three with a 1:16.633, 0.119 seconds behind his teammate, while Verstappen took fourth with a 1:16.692. Championship leader Andrea Kimi Antonelli wound up fifth on a 1:16.707, heading Norris and Red Bull‘s Isack Hadjar. Racing Bulls locked out row four with Liam Lawson in eighth and Arvid Lindblad ninth, as the entire top ten in Q3 was blanketed by just 0.639 seconds.

Deleted Times and a Red Flag Disruption

The session did not run cleanly. A single red flag interrupted proceedings, and the stewards were kept busy by noting or investigating eight separate incidents across the three segments. Track limits at the high-altitude circuit proved particularly costly.

A total of 12 lap times were deleted for track limits violations during the afternoon. Lance Stroll, Hadjar, Gasly, and Carlos Sainz proved to be the most frequent offenders, each losing two flying laps. The disruptions compounded a messy session down the order: Sainz could manage only 16th for Williams after scraping out of Q1, while teammate Alexander Albon fell in the first phase alongside Fernando Alonso, Ryo Hirakawa, Stroll, Sergio Pérez, and Valtteri Bottas.

Soft Tyres Dictate Pace Ahead of Sunday

Track conditions were dry throughout, with ambient temperatures between 26 and 26.6°C and asphalt temperatures shifting between 37.4 and 49°C. Hamilton burned through six fresh sets of soft rubber across qualifying, running exclusively on the red-walled compound (Soft > Soft > Soft > Soft > Soft > Soft) on his way to pole.

Every driver in the top ten set their benchmark lap on the soft tyre. The grip on single laps was clear, but the heat of Mexico City and the long run down to Turn 1 will pose entirely different demands when race stints begin.

Sunday’s Grand Prix starts at 20:00 UTC under mostly clear skies, with air temperatures forecast at 25°C and light winds around 9 km/h.

Timing data: Jolpica-F1, tyres and race control: OpenF1. Forecast: MET Norway (CC BY 4.0). Charts and results card by Slip Stream GP.

This report was written automatically with the help of AI (Google Gemini), from public timing data. Every number in the tables and charts comes straight from the data. Spotted a mistake? Tell me.

Published by

Pasindu Senavirathna

Data

Jolpica-F1, OpenF1, Wikidata and Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and MET Norway

Last updated

1 Nov 2026, 00:27