All to Play for on Sunday in Mexico

The team, along with the rest of the field, opted to run the Medium and Soft compounds in FP3 thus carrying five sets of new Soft tyres into qualifying.

Both drivers deployed two new sets to progress from Q1, with Kimi just making it through in P15.

He used two new sets once again in Q2 whilst George was able to save a set by progressing on only one new set.

The field was tightly packed throughout and, after a banker lap on the used for Kimi, both drivers set their best laps on their final runs in Q3.

George ended the session P4, just 0.186s shy of the front-row, with Kimi less than a tenth behind his team-mate in P6.

With the longest run from the grid to turn one of the entire season, the start tomorrow could be crucial in the race’s outcome with Ferrari, the team’s nearest competitors in the Constructors’ Championship, starting P2 and P3.

George Russell

I am reasonably happy with how qualifying went today. On pure single lap pace, Lando (Norris) and both Ferraris seemed to have a step on us, so the next best possible position was P4. That’s exactly where we ended up. It was all very close out there; Piastri was just one tenth behind me and he was P8. Being ahead of both him and Verstappen gives us a good chance of fighting for the podium in tomorrow’s race.

It's a long run to turn one, and it will be a long race after that, so let’s see what we can do. We have both Ferraris ahead of us on the grid and, given how close the fight is for second in the Constructors’ Championship, getting in the mix with them tomorrow is crucial. We had decent long run pace on Friday and hopefully we can deploy that tomorrow.

Kimi Antonelli

I had a scrappy Q1 and was struggling to find my rhythm. That put me in a slightly unfavourable position for the rest of qualifying, needing to improve on my last laps in both Q1 and Q2. I managed to improve as qualifying went on though and Q3 was my cleanest session. P6 and being only a few tenths off the front-row, wasn’t a bad result in the end.

Tomorrow should be a great fight. There are plenty ofunknowns going into the race and all three compounds look like they could be useful tyres. The start, given the long run to turn one, is going to be very important. If we can get away well, we can then hopefully put ourselves in a positive position to fight for positions ahead. That’s going to be key with both Ferraris lining up ahead of us.

Bradley Lord, Team Representative

This season has been one of fine margins in the battle between the top four teams, and those margins become even finer on a short circuit like this one. We have been in and around the top four all weekend, with both drivers, but it was clear from FP3 that, barring an unusual event, Norris was favourite for pole position. P4 for George and P6 for Kimi are therefore solid results this afternoon, albeit with the feeling that there was more time to find with both cars.

George had a smooth session but never quite felt he had the car and tyres under him at the right time to challenge for the front row, while Kimi had a nervous start to the session - only just escaping Q1 - but then showed good composure to finish P6, under a tenth behind George.

We're starting right in the middle of the pack of teams fighting for P2 in the Constructors' Championship and bookended by the top two drivers in the standings. The run to turn one here in Mexico is always frantic and it feels like there's even more at stake than usual tomorrow. All three compounds look like viable race tyres, so we may see some variation across the field, too. Although degradation levels were high yesterday, as we often see at this circuit, the start and pit stops will likely play a disproportionate role in determining the race outcome as we have seen at recent events. We will be working hard to ensure we make the most of those opportunities tomorrow with both cars.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

We can't be overly pleased with P4 and P6 today. The tyres always seem to be a bit fickle on a single lap at this track and that was very much the case today. Kimi had a very tricky start to his session, rather too close to the cutoff for comfort in Q1 and Q2 but he did a solid job of gathering it together for the final runs. He lost a bit of time in the final sector and, had it not been for this, he could have ended up P5. George had a slightly easier journey through to the final session, managing to save two sets of the soft tyres but struggled to switch them on with the cooling track. His second attempt was stronger, but it seemed with the track conditions in Q3, we were at best the third quickest team today.

We'd have liked to be starting a bit higher up but there are always position changes at the start due to long run down to turn one so, providing we can avoid the usual dramas and emerge in good positions, we should still be able to have a good race. The battle for second in the Constructors’ Championship is finely balanced and, with two Ferraris starting ahead of us tomorrow, we know we need take advantage of every opportunity we can create.

FP3 Results

Qualifying Result