Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has his tenth pole position of the season after once again besting teammate and Drivers' Championship leader Nico Rosberg in qualifying. Hamilton, the runner-up in the Drivers' Championship, will try and make it two race wins in a row when the Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix gets underway on Sunday.
Once again, the second row is made up of Red Bull drivers Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, in that order, while Nico Hulkenberg continued Force India's excellent run by lining his car in fifth place on the grid. He's ahead of both Ferrari drivers, Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.
Red Bull continues to make gains on Ferrari, the only manufacturer that looked like they might take it to Mercedes this year. Instead, Mercedes has once again run away with the Constructor's Championship and it's Red Bull who have been pushing them in recent races.
Of course, "pushing them" simply means challenging them at the start of the race and forcing them to be mindful of pit strategy, as the Mercedes car is still quite a bit better overall.
After Raikkonen and Vettel, in that order, the top 10 is rounded out by the Williams cars of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa and the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz just inside the points at 10th on the grid.
Hamilton took pole with a lap time of 1:18.704, a time he set on his first run in the third qualifying session. He was unable to beat his own time the second time out, but he still edged out Rosberg, who posted a time of 1:18.958. Nobody else broke the 1:18 barrier, with everyone but Massa and Sainz (1:20) being in the 1:19 range.
Rosberg was behind the Red Bulls until his final run, which proved enough to jump them but not enough to best his teammate.
The full qualifying results are below:
Position | Driver | Team | Lap time |
1 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:18.704 |
2 | Nico Rosberg | Mercedes | 1:18.958 |
3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1:19.054 |
4 | Daniel Ricciardo | Red Bull | 1:19.133 |
5 | Nico Hulkenberg | Force India | 1:19.330 |
6 | Kimi Raikkonen | Ferrari | 1:19.376 |
7 | Sebastian Vettel | Ferrari | 1:19.381 |
8 | Valtteri Bottas | Williams | 1:19.551 |
9 | Felipe Massa | Williams | 1:20.032 |
10 | Carlos Sainz | Toro Rosso | 1:20.378 |
11 | Fernando Alonso | McLaren | 1:20.282 |
12 | Sergio Pérez | Force India | 1:20.287 |
13 | Jenson Button | McLaren | 1:20.673 |
14 | Kevin Magnussen | Renault | 1:21.131 |
15 | Marcus Ericsson | Sauber | 1:21.536 |
16 | Pascal Wehrlein | Manor | 1:21.785 |
17 | Esteban Gutierrez | Haas | 1:21.401 |
18 | Daniil Kvyat | Toro Rosso | 1:21.454 |
19 | Felipe Nasr | Sauber | 1:21.692 |
20 | Esteban Ocon | Manor | 1:21.881 |
21 | Romain Grosjean | Haas | 1:21.916 |
22 | Jolyon Palmer | Renault | No time |