Hamilton Takes Mexico City Pole for Ferrari by Nine Thousandths
Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix on Saturday, beating Mercedes team-mate George Russell by 0.009 seconds. Pole is the fastest lap in qualifying, and it means starting the race from the front of the grid.
Hamilton's best lap was 1:16.514, according to Formula1.com. Russell's was 1:16.523. Those nine thousandths of a second were the whole difference between them, and they gave Ferrari and Mercedes the first two places on the grid.
This was Hamilton's first pole for Ferrari, his 105th in a career that began with McLaren. It was also the 35th pole for a Ferrari driver and the team's 255th overall, according to Ferrari. Hamilton had taken two sprint poles before this, Reuters reported, but this was his first in a full grand prix for the team.
The wait was long. His previous pole came at the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix, 1,197 days earlier. At 41, he is the oldest driver to take pole since Mario Andretti did it for Ferrari at the 1982 Italian Grand Prix, the BBC reported.
Behind the front row, Charles Leclerc qualified third for Ferrari, so the team's two cars sit first and third. Max Verstappen was fourth on the timesheets, but a one-place grid penalty drops him to fifth. That moves Kimi Antonelli up to fourth. Antonelli had qualified fifth, behind Leclerc and Verstappen. Lando Norris was sixth. Isack Hadjar, Liam Lawson, Arvid Lindblad and Pierre Gasly completed the top 10.
The penalty matters most for the championship. Antonelli leads the title race, and according to the BBC, he can only be kept from clinching the title in Mexico City in two ways. Russell would have to win and Antonelli finish lower than ninth, or Hamilton would have to win and Antonelli finish outside the points. A grid place does not decide a race on its own, but Antonelli starts from a position that gives him a clear route to the front.
Leclerc had already set the pace on Thursday, when he topped the timesheets in the first practice session, the FIA reported. Saturday's order shows how close the top of the field is. The circuit is 4.304 km long and the race runs 71 laps, a total distance of 305.354 km, according to Ferrari.
Hamilton's lap was 0.009 seconds faster than Russell's, and the race will reward whoever keeps that edge through the first corners. Lights out is the moment everything starts to count.
