Hamilton Takes 10th Seasonal Pole In Mexico

While still trailing in the world championship going into the Mexican Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton had to prove that after a win last week in Texas, that he could still be in contention for the title. And at the Circuit Hermanos Rodriguez Saturday afternoon, he showed that he could by setting a 1:18:704 fastest time to take his 10th pole of the season ahead of challenger and series leader Nico Rosberg. Max Vertsappen, who had the best time in the previous third practice session, will start Sunday’s race in third.

“It is always a tough battle and especially with these tires, especially on the second lap are very challenging on this track and it does not want to grip on this track.” Specified Hamilton afterwards. “But today, it feels more like a race track, which is great. I don’t know why, but we have a huge turnout here, and I am looking forward to seeing a lot more Mexicans out here tomorrow.”

Hamilton not only took pole for the 59th time of his career, but started the afternoon session off with the fastest time, until Verstappen matched it with a 1: 18:972, almost a second quicker until Hamilton topped it in the final period. For the dominant AMG Mercedes Team, they locked out the front row for the 12th time this season which was very different in comparison to the American Haas F1 Team, as both drivers, Esteban Gutierrez and Romain Grosjean took 17th and 21st positions, respectively, both being eliminated from the opening period.

All of the drivers took part in the qualifying except Reanult’s Jolyon Palmer, who cracked his driver’s cockpit tub in the early morning practice session, enabling him not to drive in qualifying while the car completely gets repaired for race day.

Daniel Ricciardo was a bit disappointed in his qualifying, but took fourth on the grid, while Nico Hulkenberg was fifth in his Force India. Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel took sixth and seventh, respectively, while the Williams duo of Valterri Bottas and Felipe Massa took the next two positions. Carlos Sainz Jr. took the final spot in the top ten.

When asked about if there is a real tactic to winning the world championship, which Rosberg can do if Hamilton does not finish the race and Rosberg wins, Hamilton was very modest in his response.

“There never is a real tactic,” Hamilton said. “I turn out to do the job and the same thing that I did last weekend. Looking forward to the race and the car feels great. I am just looking forward to getting out on track.”

Mark Gero

Mark Gero has written formula one racing stories since 2002 on the Internet for such sites as Motorsport.com, Racing Information Service News and for a brief time at the Munich Eye newspaper in Munich, Germany along with Autoweek online. Mark also has a diploma in journalism from the London School of Journalism in London, England and in addition a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from Ashford University in Clinton, Iowa.

racingnation.com