World champion Max Verstappen secures first ever pole in Mexico

MEXICO CITY: World champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull will start the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix from pole for the first time on Sunday night.

In 2019, Verstappen was quickest in qualifying but had to drop three grid places for a yellow flag infringement, promoting Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to pole. There were no such problems for the  25-year-old Dutchman this time, who recorded a best lap of 1:17.775 and an average lap speed of 199.220 km/h to secure his sixth pole of 2022 and the 19th of his F1 career.

“Very lovely that,” the Dutchman told his team after holding off the Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. “It was a close one. We made a few adjustments and the car got into a better rhythm.”

The hopes of hundreds of thousands of Mexican fans were dashed when Sergio Perez could not join his team-mate on the front row, after finishing fourth fastest.

“It was a big shame,” said Perez. “We had an electrical issue throughout qualifying. I was pretty much blind, I had no indication of my lap times. To be P4 is not the end of the world, but today I believe we could have fought for pole.”

But Verstappen lifted the Mexican mood: “Checo will be there tomorrow,” he said, “I’m sure we’ve got a fast race car.”

Russell complained of brake problems throughout the hour but apologized to his Mercedes team after his final run when he ran wide on entry to the Foro Sol and lost any chance of catching the Red Bull.

“The team deserved more today,” said the 24-year-old Englishman. “They’ve produced a really great car for this weekend — it was just a terrible lap from me.”

Ferrari could do no better than fifth for Carlos Sainz and seventh for Charles Leclerc, as Sainz complained: “We were fighting the car too