Mexico City Grand Prix: Qualifying Recap

Both drivers eased through Q1 firmly in the top 10 after utilizing three new sets of Pirelli P Zero Red softs. Their third and final runs delivered fast laps of 1:16.948 for Ocon (P5) and 1:17.106 from Bearman (P8) – the top 15 drivers progressing into Q2.

Bearman and Ocon ran a used set of soft tires for their opening Q2 runs before bolting on another fresh set each. Bearman produced a quickest lap of 1:16.787 to take P9 and graduate his VF-25 into Q3. Ocon narrowly missed out on joining his teammate in the final session, the Frenchman taking the checkered P12 with a 1:16.837 best lap. Q3 saw Bearman once again open the run plan on a scrubbed set of softs before one final time attack on a new set of the compound. The British rookie lapped the 4.304-kilometer (2.674-mile), 17-turn circuit in 1:16.460 to take P10.

At the head of the pack McLaren’s Lando Norris claimed pole position courtesy of a 1:15.586 effort – with Charles Leclerc placing his Scuderia Ferrari alongside on the front-row thanks to a 1:15.848 Q3 lap.

Ollie Bearman:

“Overall, I’m happy. I think we optimized the package that we had today, and I’m super happy with that lap. Being the first car out on track is not ideal, but then again, we were missing a bit of lap time to be fighting for anything other than P9 or P10. I feel good about tomorrow, as with the pace that we showed on high-fuel yesterday – I feel confident, as that was the good part of yesterday. I’m really looking forward to the race tomorrow.”

Esteban Ocon:

“Well done to the team because we’ve clearly improved the qualifying pace that I was struggling with recently. It’s been a strong session in terms of car feeling, so I’m happy with that. It’s very unfortunate to miss out on Q3. It was the last lap of Q2 really, we had the pace, and we were P5 heading into the run, but it just wasn’t a great lap as I was in the dirty air of Tsunoda and Leclerc. They didn’t do anything wrong, but it was just a case of the wrong place, wrong time, as I was in that dirty air and lost the rear into the last sector. Three hundredths is what we needed to get into Q3, and I think we could’ve gone P5 if I was able to continue to put in the sector times I was putting in before.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal:

“FP3 was pretty smooth, and both drivers did a really good job. In qualifying, we were so close to getting both Ollie and Esteban into Q3, but Esteban missed it by three hundredths – with his lap being decent as well. They’re such tiny margins, but we’re very happy that we got both cars so close to the top 10. Ollie’s Q3 lap – although that was ultimately P10 – was a very, very good lap and I can say he got everything out of that car. We’ve come away from this qualifying feeling very positive, and with Sainz’s penalty, tomorrow we start P9 and P11. Our focus is now to get both cars into the top 10 on Sunday.”