Max Verstappen saved his best until Q3 as he beat the Mercedes to pole position at the Mexican Grand Prix.
After Lewis Hamilton had gone fastest in both Q1 and Q2, the reigning world champion stepped it up with two brilliant laps to secure his sixth pole of the 2022 season.
George Russell claimed second, just 0.005s ahead of his Mercedes teammate in third. While home favourite Sergio Perez claimed fourth.
Q1
A second flying lap by Hamilton saw him set the quickest time by half a tenth from Verstappen at the front to start qualifying.
But there was a bit of early trouble for Perez, who needed a second run to confirm his place in Q2.
In the elimination zone, a late improvement by Zhou Guanyu dropped Mick Schumacher down to P16, on the exact same time as good friend Sebastian Vettel in 17th.
Birthday boy Lance Stroll was one place behind in 18th on a difficult day for Aston Martin after their recent strong results.
Alex Albon had been in the top 10 in FP3, but was surprisingly only 19th for Williams as teammate Nicholas Latifi was slowest overall.
Q2
Hamilton continued to set the pace in Q2, as just 0.014s covered the top four including Russell, Sainz and Verstappen.
The tight margins continued in the battle to reach the top 10 as Daniel Ricciardo missed out by just 0.053s in 11th.
Zhou was 12th in the Alfa Romeo ahead of the two AlphaTauri’s with Yuki Tsunoda pipping Pierre Gasly.
Kevin Magnussen was 15th, becoming the first Haas driver to ever reach Q2 in Mexico, but a five-place grid penalty for a new engine will drop him to 19th to start the race.
Q3
Verstappen claimed the provisional pole after the first runs, becoming the first driver into the 1m17s this weekend.
The Dutchman was a tenth clear of Russell with Perez in third. Hamilton had initially gone third but had his lap time deleted for track limits.
Lewis then recovered well with his second attempt, reclaiming third just behind Russell. But no one would stop Max as he improved again setting a 1m17.775s to claim P1 by three-tenths.
Perez had to settle for fourth, ahead of Carlos Sainz in fifth as Ferrari failed to launch a genuine pole position bid.
Valtteri Bottas was one of the top performers in qualifying, claiming sixth for Alfa Romeo, beating Charles Leclerc in seventh.
Lando Norris took eighth leading Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon as the battle for fourth in the Constructors’ Championship rages on between McLaren and Alpine.