Max P3 on the grid: "Not far off the front"

Published on 29 October 2016 by Stefan Meens

Max Verstappen will start the Mexican Grand Prix from the second row of the grid. The Dutchman qualified in third behind both Mercedes and ahead of team mate Daniel Ricciardo. Lewis Hamilton took pole position.

“Pole wasn’t achievable today”, said Max at the post-quali press conference. “I was fastest in Q2, but you have to remain realistic as the others were on the soft instead of the super-softs. But it felt good in qualifying and all weekend I’ve felt good in the car. We continuously improved ourselves. It’s a shame we couldn’t pull off that one lap because second was possible. But we’re not far behind them and the different tyre strategies open up opportunities. I’m looking forward to the race.”

There are a couple of surprises in Q1. Whereas the front runners make it through comfortably, they are also joined by Manor’s Pascal Wehrlein. On the opposite end of the spectrum we find Jolyon Palmer. After a bumpy ride over the kerbstones in FP3, his Renault’s chassis had cracked. The issue proved to difficult to fix to participate in qualifying.

The other drivers to not make it into the second part of qualifying were both Haas, Daniil Kvyat, Felipe Nasr and Esteban Ocon.

In Q2, Max sets the quickest lap of all. His fastest lap of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez was set on the super-soft tyres. Of the front runners, only his team mate Daniel Ricciardo followed the same strategy. Both Ferraris and Mercedes opted to set their fastest laps on the soft Pirellis, meaning the Red Bulls will start the race on a different compound compared to their rivals.

Fernando Alonso, Sergio Perez, Jenson Button, Kevin Magnussen and Pascal Wehrlein are the casualties in Q2.

In the final part of qualifying, the three top teams (Red Bull Racing, Mercedes and Ferrari) have their drivers do two timed laps. Max is one of the few drivers who improves on his first time, ultimately granting him P3 behind both Mercedes and alongside Daniel Ricciardo. Nico Hulkenberg pulled off a stunning lap to start the race from fifth, ahead of both Ferraris.

Mexican Grand Prix - Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez - Saturday 29 October

QUALIFYING RESULTS

01 44 Lewis Hamilton      Mercedes                    1:19.447 1:19.137 1:18.704 18
02  6 Nico Rosberg        Mercedes                    1:19.996 1:19.761 1:18.958 22
03 33 Max Verstappen      Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer   1:19.874 1:18.972 1:19.054 14
04  3 Daniel Ricciardo    Red Bull Racing TAG Heuer   1:19.713 1:19.553 1:19.133 15
05 27 Nico Hulkenberg     Force India Mercedes        1:20.599 1:19.769 1:19.330 22
06  7 Kimi Räikkönen      Ferrari                     1:19.554 1:19.936 1:19.376
07  5 Sebastian Vettel    Ferrari                     1:19.865 1:19.385 1:19.381 
08 77 Valtteri Bottas     Williams Mercedes           1:20.338 1:19.958 1:19.551 
09 19 Felipe Massa        Williams Mercedes           1:20.423 1:20.151 1:20.032 
10 55 Carlos Sainz        Toro Rosso Ferrari          1:20.457 1:20.169 1:20.378 
11 14 Fernando Alonso     McLaren Honda               1:20.552 1:20.282 
12 11 Sergio Perez        Force India Mercedes        1:20.308 1:20.287 
13 22 Jenson Button       McLaren Honda               1:21.333 1:20.673 
14 20 Kevin Magnussen     Renault                     1:21.254 1:21.131 
15  9 Marcus Ericsson     Sauber Ferrari              1:21.062 1:21.536 
16 94 Pascal Wehrlein     MRT Mercedes                1:21.363 1:21.785 
17 21 Esteban Gutierrez   Haas Ferrari                1:21.401 
18 26 Daniil Kvyat        Toro Rosso Ferrari          1:21.454 
19 12 Felipe Nasr         Sauber Ferrari              1:21.692 
20 31 Esteban Ocon        MRT Mercedes                1:21.881 
21  8 Romain Grosjean     Haas Ferrari                1:21.916 

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