Valtteri Bottas earned himself a pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix with a stunning lap around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez to lead Mercedes to take the top two sports for the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Verstappen was working hard early doors in Q3 as he had to push to get ahead of Sainz on his outlap to ensure he was behind Perez and could thus pick-up a tow.
Behind them, Mercedes were running the same strategy, with Bottas positioned just ahead of Hamilton, while McLaren had Norris doing the same for Ricciardo.
Bottas set the early pace, ahead of Hamilton, with Verstappen a surprising 0.350s behind, the Dutchman’s Red Bull sliding around and particularly aggressive across the Turn 2 kerbs, while he also was too far behind in the end to get a slipstream.
All boxed for a fresh set of tyres and while Bottas set a second time that was good enough for pole, none of the main protagonists were able to improve, leading to Mercedes boss Toto Wolff punching the air with delight.
"Honestly that first run in Q3 was one of my best laps," said Bottas, while Hamilton added: "I really have no idea [what changed]. I'm just as shocked as everyone but we'll still take it."
Qualifying Results:
Valtteri Bottas
Lewis Hamilton
Max Verstappen
Sergio Perez
Pierre Gasly
Carlos Sainz
Daniel Ricciardo
Charles Leclerc
Yuki Tsunoda
Lando Norris
Sebastian Vettel
Kimi Räikkönen
George Russell
Antonio Giovinazzi
Esteban Ocon
Fernando Alonso
Nicholas Latifi
Mick Schumacher
Nikita Mazepin
Lance Stroll
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Michael Lamonato at Racer shares his thoughts: