Daniel Ricciardo produced a mega final lap to deny teammate Max Verstappen pole position as Red Bull locked out the front row for the Mexican Grand Prix.
The Australian made up four-tenths on his initial time in Q3 to post a new track record of 1m14.759s, just 0.026s ahead of Verstappen, who’s wait for the first pole in Formula 1 continues.
It was the pace of the Red Bull through the second and third sector which allowed them to overhaul Mercedes and Ferrari with Lewis Hamilton moving upto third and Sebastian Vettel completing the second row.
Their respective teammates Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Raikkonen made up the top six as the problems with the tyres from Friday disappeared in much cooler conditions in Mexico City.
What the change in weather also did was allow the top three teams to complete Q2 on the Ultrasoft compound, meaning the problems seen with the Hypersoft are now largely irrelevant for Sunday’s race.
Renault and Sauber led the midfield with Nico Hulkenberg taking seventh ahead of Carlos Sainz, the two drivers overhauled Charles Leclerc with their second attempt demoting the Monegasque to ninth as Marcus Ericsson completed the top 10.
Some of the usual midfield frontrunners disappointed but in the case of Force India, they ran harder tyres in the second part of qualifying with Esteban Ocon 11th and local hero Sergio Perez 13th to ensure a free choice for the start of the race.
Fernando Alonso can be satisfied with 12th for McLaren as the two Toro Rosso’s also slipped down with Brendon Hartley making a mistake into the stadium section and Pierre Gasly not setting a time in Q2 as he will start from the back of the grid with engine penalties.
In Q1, a raft of late laps saw a number of potential unexpected exits but perhaps most surprising was the two Haas cars missing out with Romain Grosjean, who also has a three-place penalty, 16th with Kevin Magnussen 18th.
Stoffel Vandoorne’s miserable record of failing to outqualify teammate Alonso continued in 17th as the two Williams’ brought up the field with Lance Stroll ahead of Sergey Sirotkin.
Full results from qualifying can be seen below:
