F1 Mexican Grand Prix: Rosberg beats Hamilton for fourth straight pole

Nico Rosberg outqualified Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton during qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix on Saturday, taking his fourth consecutive pole position of the F1 season with a time of 1min 19.480sec around the newly re-laid and modified 4.304km Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Hamilton seemed favourite for pole going into the final leg of qualifying, having set the fastest time in FP1 and FP2. However, a mistake on turn 12 cost him dear, allowing Rosberg to qualify ahead for tomorrow’s race.

Meanwhile, Sebastian Vettel set the third fastest time, with Daniil Kvyat asserting his authority at Red Bull by taking fourth, ahead of teammate Daniel Ricciardo.

The Williams pairing of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa were sixth and seventh fastest respectively, while Max Verstappen again breaked into the top 10 with the eighth quickest time.

Home-hero Sergio Perez only did a single run during the second part of Q3, when the track appeared to slow down. As a result, he will line up ninth for tomorrow’s race, sharing the fifth row of the grid with Nico Hulkenberg in the other Force India.

Unlike Verstappen, Carlos Sainz failed to make into the Q3. He was joined by the Lotus duo of Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado and the Ferrari driven by Kimi Raikkonen in the list of drivers failing to make the cut. Raikkonen appeared to have brake problems in qualifying, forcing him to abort the session. He will drop five places from his original grid spot for a change of gearbox.

Earlier in Q1, former F1 world champion Fernando Alonso fell prey to the knockout qualifying system, with Felipe Nasr also not progressing beyond the opening session. Among the Manor drivers, Alexander Rossi was two tenths quicker than regular Will Stevens

F1 Mexican GP: Qualifying Results (Top 10)

1. Nico Rosberg (Mercedes) 1:19.480
2. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) 1:19.668
3. Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) 1:19.850
4. Daniil Kvyat (Red Bull-Renault) 1:20.398
5. Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull-Renault) 1:20.399
6. Valtteri Bottas (Williams-Mercedes) 1:20.448
7. Felipe Massa (Williams-Mercedes) 1:20.567
8. Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso-Renault) 1:20.710
9. Sergio Perez (Force India-Mercedes) 1:20.716
10. Nico Hulkenberg (Force India-Mercedes) 1:20.788