Front-Row for George in Intense Mexico Qualifying

• George Russell qualified second for tomorrow’s Mexico City Grand Prix with Kimi Antonelli fifth in an incredibly tight qualifying session.

• That will become P4 for Kimi on Sunday’s grid by virtue of Max Verstappen’s one-place grid penalty.

• In what was a closely fought affair, George put together a strong final effort in Q3 to take P2, just 0.009s shy of Lewis Hamilton’s pole position time of 1:16.514.

• Kimi was also in the fight at the front, setting a 1:16.707 to take P5, just 0.193s away from pole position.

• The difficulty throughout the session was getting tyre warm-up correct, with the optimal finely balanced between needing a preparation lap and going for it on the first lap.

• Tomorrow’s race will likely be dominated by the challenge of cooling, with all teams needing to manage brake and power unit temperatures at the high altitude of Mexico City.

George Russell

That wasn’t an easy session, but I was pleased with my final lap. It came together when it mattered and we were able to get a good result out of the session. It was tricky getting the tyres into the right window and we took a slightly different approach with our preparation compared to some of those around us. We opted to go for it on the first lap at the end of Q3, rather than take a preparation lap, and that proved the right call. The performance was clearly in the car, but we need to understand why we haven’t been able to access it as consistently as we would like recently.

It’s very close between the four teams at the front, so tomorrow should be an interesting race. Overtaking will be difficult and managing the power unit and brake temperatures will be important, but we’ll see what opportunities come our way. My focus is on finishing the season strongly and maximising every opportunity we have.

Kimi Antonelli

It wasn’t my best qualifying today. I struggled to find the grip from the tyres in Q3 and didn’t put together the lap I wanted, with a few too many mistakes. It’s disappointing as I felt more comfortable earlier in the session and hoped we could be fighting further forward. That said, we’re still P4 and there is plenty to play for tomorrow.

The run to Turn One is very long here, so getting a good start and staying out of trouble will be important. We’ve also saved a set of Soft tyres which could give us some options in the race. I think we have a good chance to fight for a strong result, so I’ll get some rest tonight, reset and focus on doing the best race we can tomorrow.

Toto Wolff, CEO & Team Principal

It was incredibly close out there today. The gap between Lewis (Hamilton) and George was probably no more than 50 centimetres on track, which shows how fine the margins were. It was a difficult session for us though overall. The tyre was tricky to get into the right window and the grip dropped away quickly, so getting the preparation right was important. George’s quickest lap came without a preparation lap, whereas we took a different approach with Kimi, so we need to look at that and understand whether we could have optimised it better.

The race will be a different challenge. The margins were just as small on Friday’s long runs as we saw on the single lap today, so getting the start, strategy and tyre management right will be important. We are starting from a position where we can fight, and our focus will be on executing a clean race with both cars and seeing what opportunities come our way.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

We had a relatively straightforward FP3, evaluating the changes we made overnight and doing some work to better understand the tyres on lower fuel. We made some progress with the set-up, although we were still struggling with a loose rear on corner entry and understeer at the apex of the slower corners. That made it difficult to put a complete lap together. Our pace on the Medium tyre wasn’t particularly strong, but the additional grip from the Soft helped and, by the end of the session, it looked like we might have the performance to fight for pole.

We didn’t change much on either car going into qualifying, but it was a slightly messy start to the session, and we were lacking some pace early on. The track temperature continued to drop, which would normally help us, but after the first runs in Q2 we still looked to be a few tenths away. We improved as the session progressed and George produced a very strong final lap in Q3 to take a place on the front row, just a few milliseconds from pole. Kimi finished P5 and wasn’t especially happy with either the car or his own performance. With penalties applied, we will start P2 and P4 tomorrow. Given the long run to Turn One, that puts us in a reasonable position. Our long-run pace on Friday looked competitive, but managing brake and Power Unit temperatures is likely to be one of the key factors in the race. Both drivers can fight for the podium and, if we can manage those temperatures and use the performance in the car, hopefully we can be in the fight for the win too.

FP3 Result

Qualifying Result