Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton celebrate an unlikely 1-2  front row lockout after qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix. PHOTO: Mercedes Benz 

BRENDAN LINES November 7, 2021

VALTTERI Bottas has flipped the script on Mercedes’ FP2 form and snatched pole position  for the Mexico City Grand Prix, teammate Lewis Hamilton completed a front row lockout.

Bottas made up a near half-a-second deficit to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen after FP2 and took his 19th career pole position, on his first run in Q3. 

The Finn threw down a challenge setting the fastest time on his first runs and opened a 0.145s-gap back to Hamilton.

Bottas was happy too hang his hat on his first run and conceded he was unable to match his sectors on his second run.

“I think honestly that first run in Q3 was one of my best laps. It’s a good feeling!” he said.

And the team’s performance was a turnaround from the morning’s FP3 run.

“We were lacking a bit of pace on lap one but I think with higher temperatures this afternoon than in the morning it came our way,” Bottas said.

“We also tried to optimise everything with tyres, temps and setup and it was a joy to drive.”

The Red Bull cars of Verstappen and Sergio Perez were on the jacks with no rear wings ahead of Q1, the favourites appeared to struggle with the rear tyres and was unable to reel in the runaway Mercedes.

Hometown hero Perez was positioned to give Verstappen a tow on the second runs, until Alpha Tauri’s Yuki Tsunoda ran wide upsetting Red Bull’s charge and putting them out of pole contention.

Verstappen will start from P3 alongside Perez in P4, Sunday’s race will be only the sixth time this season Verstappen has been unable to feature on the front row.

Carlos Sainz recovered from an engine issue in his Ferrari and took a classy P6 and will start behind Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly in P5.

Daniel Ricciardo was the fastest  McLaren in P7 and will fight for valuable points in the battle for third in the constructors championship alongside rival Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

While Tsunoda and McLaren’s Lando Norris round out the top ten in P9 and P10 respectively.

Full results

1	77	Valtteri Bottas	MERCEDES	1:16.727	1:16.864	1:15.875	23
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	MERCEDES	1:17.207	1:16.474	1:16.020	22
3	33	Max Verstappen	RED BULL RACING HONDA	1:16.788	1:16.483	1:16.225	18
4	11	Sergio Perez	RED BULL RACING HONDA	1:17.003	1:17.055	1:16.342	18
5	10	Pierre Gasly	ALPHATAURI HONDA	1:16.908	1:16.955	1:16.456	22
6	55	Carlos Sainz	FERRARI	1:17.517	1:17.248	1:16.761	23
7	3	Daniel Ricciardo	MCLAREN MERCEDES	1:17.719	1:17.092	1:16.763	17
8	16	Charles Leclerc	FERRARI	1:16.748	1:17.034	1:16.837	22
9	22	Yuki Tsunoda	ALPHATAURI HONDA	1:17.330	1:16.701	1:17.158	19
10	4	Lando Norris	MCLAREN MERCEDES	1:17.569	1:17.473	1:36.830	19
11	5	Sebastian Vettel	ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES	1:17.502	1:17.746		16
12	7	Kimi Räikkönen	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	1:17.606	1:17.958		18
13	63	George Russell	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:17.958	1:18.172		13
14	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI	1:17.897	1:18.290		15
15	31	Esteban Ocon	ALPINE RENAULT	1:18.126	1:18.405		13
16	14	Fernando Alonso	ALPINE RENAULT	1:18.452			7
17	6	Nicholas Latifi	WILLIAMS MERCEDES	1:18.756			8
18	47	Mick Schumacher	HAAS FERRARI	1:18.858			9
19	9	Nikita Mazepin	HAAS FERRARI	1:19.303			9
20	18	Lance Stroll	ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES	1:20.873			3

Q1 107% time – 1:22.097

Note – Russell drops 5 grid places for taking on a new gearbox after exceeding his allocation. Ocon, Stroll, Tsunoda and Norris start from the back of the grid after taking on new PU components.