Formula 1
BOTTAS PULLS POLE OUT OF A HAT LCH RELIEVED TOTO MOCKING HORNER!
Valtteri Bottas:
It was an awesome lap! Especially my lap in the first run of Q3. I couldn’t quite match my sectors in the second one, but I think honestly that first run in Q3 was one of my best laps. It’s a good feeling!
This morning actually the car was really good: we were lacking a bit of pace on lap 1 but I think with higher temperatures this afternoon than in the morning it came our way. We also tried to optimise everything with tyres, temps and setup and it was a joy to drive! Looking ahead to the start, it is a long, long straight and for sure, the cars behind with the tow will have good opportunities so we’ll need a good start and at least, as a team, it’s good that we have two cars ahead and hopefully we can try and keep the positions.
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO – NOVEMBER 06: Sergio Perez of Mexico and Red Bull Racing fans show their support during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Mexico at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on November 06, 2021 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)
Lewis Hamilton:
Valtteri did an amazing job, I’m so proud of him! I think he’s been driving so well these last few races so it’s great for the team – they’ve been working hard. We didn’t think we had the pace this weekend so to lock out the front row is pretty special and obviously gives us a good fight with the others tomorrow. I’m not sure where we found the performance compared to Red Bull but once we got to qualifying we had good pace. I’m as shocked as everyone but we’ll still take it!
MEXICO CITY, MEXICO – NOVEMBER 06: Third place qualifier Max Verstappen of Netherlands and Red Bull Racing climbs from his car in parc ferme during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Mexico at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on November 06, 2021 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Francisco Guasco – Pool/Getty Images)
MAX VERSTAPPEN:
“P3 isn’t so bad considering we were really struggling to get the tyres to work today, we were sliding around a lot. My first lap in Q3 wasn’t great, the grip was terrible so when I saw the gap to Mercedes, I thought that was fair enough. We needed to find a better balance in the car so we tried to make a few changes to how our car was running and then I think the second lap of Q3 was looking okay. I don’t know what happened in front of me but I saw Checo and Yuki both go wide and I saw a lot of dust so I thought that a car had crashed. I’ve been caught out by yellow flags here before so I slowed down, as a result I lost a lot of momentum and time. It’s a shame that we both aren’t locking out the front row tomorrow after being so competitive all weekend. Tomorrow is a new day and hopefully the race will be exciting, there’s a long run to the first corner so let’s see what happens.”