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

Carlos Sainz Takes Pole Heing Into Mexican Grand Prix

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr. won his first pole of season at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, and Sergio Perez's miserable Formula 1 season continued when he failed to vance out of first round of qualifying at 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 toger and it's extremely difficult,” Sainz said. “Honestly, my two laps were pretty much identical, almost perfect. Very happy because that's not normally case around Mexico with how tricky it is.” Three-time defending champion Max Verstappen, who h 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 driver championship, qualified third and was followed by Charles Leclerc of Ferrari, who won 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 top 10.

But 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 first time since joining team in 2021, is eighth in driver standings and has crashed three times — has played a role in McLaren passing Red Bull for le in 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 b, I have many problems with slowing down car, many problems," he said. "Every time I try to break, I don't have grip, that's main problem. We see problem and we know 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 first lap last year. He said his strategy for race is recovery.

“Get some points and minimize damages, it's best we can do,” he said. ”It's a long race where anything can happen, we are going to give everything. This is 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 — re are performance clauses that could cost Perez his seat at end of season.

“I think he's summed it up perfectly — it's been a b 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 confidence in car to extract 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)