27/10/2024
NEWS STORY
Carlos Sainz will start the Mexico City Grand Prix from pole position. The Ferrari driver dominated Q3, both his timed laps being good enough for pole and he was the only driver to get under the 1'16" barrier.
His time of 1'15"946 is 1"220 quicker than last year's time, which was set by his team-mate Charles Leclerc, who was fourth today in 1'16"265. Splitting the two Ferraris are Max Verstappen in the Red Bull (1'16"171) and Lando Norris in the McLaren (1'16"260.) In tomorrow's race these two will not be able to count on any support from their respective team-mates in their fight with the Italian team, as they were eliminated in Q3 (Oscar Piastri 17th in 1'17"597 and Sergio Perez 18th in 1'17"611). This was Sainz's first pole of the season, the sixth of his career. It was the Scuderia's 253rd pole from 1093 Grands Prix, the fifth at this track. Sainz is the seventh driver to secure the number one grid slot this season and Ferrari is the only team to have had both its drivers on pole this year.
With the second free practice session being given over almost entirely to the in-competition test for development of the 2025 tyres, FP3 was very busy, with all 20 drivers focussing on performance runs, fortunately with no interruptions. The drivers at Aston Martin, Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes ran only the Soft compound, apart from scrubbing in laps from George Russell on a set of Mediums and from Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll who each scrubbed in one set of Medium and one of Hard. The C3 was also scrubbed in by Sauber which usually prefers this approach to its race preparation and today, the Hinwil team also scrubbed in a set of Mediums apart from the one used for the normal runs. The other teams split their mileage between Medium and Soft. In qualifying, the three teams at the front, barring any penalties reported between now and tomorrow, Ferrari Mercedes and McLaren, chose to start Q1 with the Medium, while the others obviously only used Softs.
Mario Isola: "A very closely contested qualifying which, for the second year running, saw a Ferrari come out on top here in Mexico City. This all suggests that in tomorrow's race the cars will also be evenly matched, especially when it comes to the fight between Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren who so far, have shown they have the edge at this track.
"Today, we saw the times come down throughout, which proves that the track surface is still evolving. It will be the same again in tomorrow's race, as the cars gradually rubber-in the track more and more. In terms of strategy, this is generally a race where the one-stop is fastest, with the Hard and Medium taking centre stage. Over the past two days, we have seen that the level of graining is significantly less than in the past, which favours the one-stop even more. Theoretically, the quickest strategy involves starting on the Medium before switching to the Hard between lap 25 and 32. Those who opt to start on the C3 should pit between lap 36 and 43 to switch to the C4. The Soft cannot be ruled out entirely: it could come into play as an option either at the start or towards the end, paired with the Hard, or maybe as a set to start on for those gambling on a two-stop to make the most of having two sets of Mediums available, which is on paper the most competitive of the three compounds brought to Mexico."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Mexico City here.