Max Verstappen Wins Grand Prix of Mexico Pole

Max Verstappen enters this weekend as the two-time defending champion of the Grand Prix of Mexico. With a lap at 128.767 mph, Verstappen secured his second pole of the season and his career on Saturday afternoon (Oct. 26).

Charles Leclerc ran a very shaky final sector of his last out lap and missed out on pole by just over a tenth of a second. Sebastian Vettel could not finish his final qualifying and settled for third. Hamilton will start fourth as Mercedes seem to be behind Ferrari and Verstappen in Mexico. Alexander Albon will start fifth in the second Red Bull.

Q3 was brought to a premature end when Bottas appeared to clip the curb exiting the Foro Sol.  Bottas lost control and hit the unprotected concrete wall before sliding into the blunt end of the Tec-Pro barrier. He qualified sixth, but the Mercedes team will have a long night of work ahead of them.

A nightmare end to qualifying for Valtteri Bottas!

But thankfully he is okay ?#MexicoGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/TakzoATo2i

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 26, 2019

McLaren can all but secures the beloved best of the rest in the Constructors championship after Renault did not appeal their disqualification from the Japanese Grand Prix for an illegal brake bias. That effort is off to a good start as Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lando Norris qualified best of the rest in seventh and eighth respectively. The Toro Rosso teammates make it four Honda powered cars in the top 10 with Daniil Kvyat was ninth, out qualifying Pierre Gasly in tenth.

FORMULA 1 GRAND PRIX OF MEXICO QUALIFYING RESULTS

The only real drama in the first Qualifying session came from Romain Grosjean going around in the first corner, the track was mostly dry but it did rain overnight in Mexico, many teams ran intermediate tires in Free Practice No. 3. Grosjean, along with his Haas teammate Kevin Magnussen were eliminated in Q1 qualifying 17th and 18th.

The 2019 Grand Prix of Mexico is set for lights out at 3:10 p.m. EST. The race will air live on ABC.