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Bottas on pole in Mexico, Mercedes teach Red Bull a lesson

The Mercedes overcame Red Bull who were too feverish in qualifying. Pierre Gasly achieves a convincing fifth time.

Published on 06/11/2021 à 22:39

Medhi Casaurang

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Bottas on pole in Mexico, Mercedes teach Red Bull a lesson

Valtteri (Mercedes) Bottas will start in pole position for the Mexico Grand Prix (Mexico). © DPPI

In the promised land of Sergio Pérez and Red Bull (at least after free practice), Mercedes resumed its role as force majeure of the Formula 1. The Black Arrows surprisingly dominated qualifying for the Mexico Grand Prix (Mexico), contested this Saturday, November 6 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

However, Christian Horner's cars seemed to have the upper hand judging by the times achieved during free practice on Friday and Saturday morning. But, and it has become a habit, the men of Toto wolff had kept some under the right pedal!

Indeed, from Q2, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas increased the pace, to the point of destabilizing the British-Austrian armada. As such, the Q3 scenario is a real textbook case: the Mercedes set better times from their first run while the Red Bulls seem to lack stability in the corners.

Forced to fight back for their second attempt, Sergio Pérez and Max Verstappen were feverish. The Mexican, perhaps too much in the spotlight in front of his public, was disturbed by a pilot error Yuki tsunoda (Alpha Tauri) behind him. The two men passed through the clearances, and Max Verstappen was also distracted, before over-driving and losing even more time in the stadium.

As a result, the Mercedes monopolized the first row, but it was Valtteri Bottas who took pole ahead of his English leader! The other nice surprise of this session was the fifth place won with merit by Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri), under the noses and beards of Ferrari and McLaren.

The French were not all at the party. At the house of Alpine, a bad strategy probably cost the Q2 place to Fernando Alonso (16th) while his Norman colleague Esteban Ocon was able to climb into said second phase of qualifying (15th)… even though he is guaranteed to start from the back of the grid due to an engine change.

However, this remains (slightly) more satisfactory than the Haas or Lance stroll. Its Aston Martin hit the protective wall in the first minutes of Q1 (20th). The Canadian escaped from a shock at 12G without injury.

Be careful though: the qualifying result will no longer have much to do with the appearance of the starting grid. This will be determined following numerous penalties linked to changes of mechanical parts not tolerated by the regulations: Esteban Ocon therefore, but also Lando Norris (McLaren), Yuki Tsunoda for the best ranked.

Qualification ranking (before application of penalties):

Medhi Casaurang

Passionate about the history of motorsport across all disciplines, I learned to read thanks to AUTOhebdo. At least that's what my parents tell everyone when they see my name inside!

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