Marco Rossi · F1 Correspondent
Nine thousandths of a second decided the closest fight of the weekend, while the title question has long been looming in the background.
Lewis Hamilton secured pole position in qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix on Saturday. With a 1:16.514, the Ferrari driver beat George Russell on the decisive Q3 run, relegating him to second on the grid by just 0.009 seconds. Behind them, a tight field took shape in which a penalty from practice reshuffles the grid before the race has even started.
Nine thousandths and a botched final attempt
Hamilton ending up on top was anything but a given. Charles Leclerc had topped both Friday practice sessions and went into qualifying with the stronger baseline form, but on Saturday he had to settle for third, 0.119 seconds behind his teammate. Inside the Scuderia that makes for a tight intra-team duel, which Hamilton won after Leclerc had held the upper hand in practice.
Max Verstappen slotted into fourth, 0.178 seconds off pole and therefore already within two tenths. On his final lap he locked up at Turn 13 in the stadium section, according to reports. How close Red Bull really was to the front had already been visible in third practice, when Verstappen was just 0.351 seconds off the fastest time. But on Saturday there was no more to be found than that narrow margin.
Penalty points from practice cast their shadow
Verstappen's grid slot on paper is not his actual starting position for Sunday anyway. After a collision with Liam Lawson in second practice on Friday, in which the two cars made contact in the stadium section and debris triggered a red flag, the stewards handed both drivers a one-place grid penalty and one penalty point each. The stewards deemed the behavior of both drivers unacceptable. Verstappen was on a preparation lap, Lawson on a cool-down lap, and both admitted they had acted clumsily.
Naturally, the two drivers saw the incident differently. "He just drove into me, man. He literally just drove into me. Every weekend he plays this game," Lawson said over the radio from his cockpit. Verstappen told Sky Sports F1 after the session: "Maybe not very smart behavior, what he was trying to do there. When you're fighting for your seat, it's not very smart behavior." For Lawson, who qualified eighth, 0.515 seconds off pole and ahead of his Racing Bulls teammate Arvid Lindblad, and who now starts behind him in ninth because of the penalty, it is another setback on an already difficult weekend. For Verstappen, the comeback drive in the race slides back one place before it has even begun.
Antonelli in the slipstream of the title decision, Alonso and home hero Pérez out early
Formula One – Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team, 2026 Mexico City GP. Kimi Antonelli
Andrea Kimi Antonelli qualified fifth, 0.193 seconds off pole and just under two tenths behind his Mercedes teammate Russell. Verstappen's penalty moves him up to fourth on the grid. On its own, that is a solid rather than outstanding grid slot, but it is enough for what this weekend is really about. According to reports, Antonelli already leads the drivers' standings by such a margin that a top-nine finish on Sunday would be enough to clinch his first world title early, a detail that puts his grid position in a very different light than the bare lap time.
Not everyone got through the afternoon unscathed. Fernando Alonso was running third in Q1 when Aston Martin told him to park his car at Turn 14 with just over eleven minutes of the session left. "I don't have any damage, why should I stop?!" the Spaniard protested over the radio, but he followed the instruction. The team later cited a loss of water pressure associated with the ERS as the cause. The stranded Aston Martin brought out a red flag, and Alonso dropped to 18th and was eliminated. He also had to answer to the stewards for failing to refit the steering wheel when climbing out of the car. It was even more bitter for home hero Sergio Pérez: he and his Cadillac teammate Valtteri Bottas were both knocked out in Q1 and will have to start the race from the last two grid slots. At Haas, Ryo Hirakawa makes his Formula 1 race debut on Sunday after the team stood Esteban Ocon down for the rest of the weekend without giving a public reason. In qualifying, he was eliminated in Q1 in 19th. The real story of Sunday lies elsewhere, between a wafer-thin pole position, a grid reshuffled before the start and a title fight that is nearing its end.
