Mercedes played to the distraction and took the pole for the Grand Prix of Mexico through Valtteri Bottas . He also classified his two cars ahead of the two Red Bulls, something of vital importance considering that Max Verstappen , who will start third, is 12 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton , who will start third. Carlos Sainz, for his part, will do it sixth; while Fernando Alonso has been the great disappointment of the qualifying session, falling eliminated in Q1.
Although Mercedes hid their cards until Q3, their drivers benefited from a Yuki Tsunoda who, after giving his slipstream to Pierre Gasly , hurt both Verstappen and Sergio Pérez in his last stake. The one who did progress was Carlos Sainz, placing sixth behind Gasly, who was benefited by the slipstream of his teammate. After the Madrid rider, Daniel Ricciardo and Charles Leclerc will face the Mexican Grand Prix.
As for Fernando Alonso, although he finished the qualifying session in sixteenth position, he will face the Mexican Grand Prix twelfth. The Asturian has thus benefited from the fact that up to four riders have changed their power unit this weekend. Alpine was more than enough and both Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon played just two laps in Q1 after the red flag caused by the Lance Stroll accident. In addition, the Frenchman did not give his slipstream to Alonso trusting that both would reach Q2 and that in that session he could give it to them. However, despite the fact that Stroll was eliminated and despite the fact that the elimination of the Haas was also sung, the Spanish was surpassed by George Russell , by Kimi Raikkonen and by Antonio Giovinazzi , falling in Q1 along with Nicholas Latifi , Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin .
Alonso gets into the fight for the Overtake Award
The positive thing that Fernando Alonso is going to face the Grand Prix of Mexico against is that he will be in a privileged position to add more overtaking than a Vettel that, after the sanction of Lando Norris , will start tenth. The Spaniard is just two overtakes behind the Aston Martin driver in the fight for the Overtake Award, the third title of the season.
The negative, and even more so if you take into account that Esteban Ocon will start nineteenth, is that Alpine is only 10 points ahead of AlphaTauri , an advantage that may be insufficient with five races remaining for the end of the World Championship.
Ferrari will also have a good chance at the Mexican GP to overtake McLaren. At the moment the British team is 3.5 points ahead of the Italian, but Ricciardo will start seventh and Lando Norris seventeenth, while Carlos Sainz will be sixth and Leclerc eighth.
This is how the qualifying session of the Mexican GP ended
QUALIFYING CLASSIFICATION:@MercedesAMGF1 in the box seat for Sunday #MexicoGP 🇲🇽 #F1 pic.twitter.com/jE5Wefj1DX
— Formula 1 (@F1) November 6, 2021
