Lewis Hamilton Takes Pole in Mexico as Antonelli Awaits His First Title

While much of the focus this weekend has been on the chance Kimi Antonelli has to become the youngest world champion in F1 history. It never looked like it would be him who would be taking pole when the time came to set the grid for the Mexico City Grand Prix. But Italy have been given another reason to celebrate today as Lewis Hamilton became the latest F1 driver to start on pole position for Ferrari, his first pole in over three years.

Charles Leclerc was the driver everyone thought was the in-form Ferrari man, having finished second in the last two Grands Prix and both Friday practice sessions. But a costly mistake in his final run put him in third place directly behind his team-mate.

The tightest pole margin since Canada 2024

Nine thousandths of a second. That is how tight the margins were between Hamilton and his former team-mate at Mercedes, George Russell, who might have thought he had done enough when he set the fastest time in Q3 that was good enough for provisional pole. With less downforce than last year due to the ground-effect aero regulations. A partially resurfaced Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, drivers found it particularly difficult to get up to the limit without going over it.

While the laps from George and Lewis were smooth and mostly error-free, Leclerc suffered from a snap of oversteer when heading through the tyre-torturing esses, bleeding lap time all the way through his final lap afterwards, preventing him from challenging those top times, though he was still only just over a tenth of a second behind his team-mate.

Also within two tenths of the 1:16.514 time set by Hamilton were Max Verstappen and Kimi Antonelli, with Max feeling that he was hindered by Lando Norris, who received instructions to get out of the way just a bit too late as he approached the thirteenth corner. Antonelli admitted to feeling tense and still not one hundred per cent with the virus that struck him down on Thursday still in the recent past, and the possible world championship still very much in his future. Max will start fifth behind Kimi in the race thanks to the one-place grid penalty for the Skirmish he had with Liam Lawson on Friday.

Piastri out of position and Alonso cruelly denied a Q2 appearance

The grid outside of the top five is pretty much as you were for much of the season, with Lando Norris starting sixth as the McLaren MCL40 continues to be a bit of a handful. The Racing Bulls proving themselves to be the midfield kings with both cars qualifying inside the top ten (Liam Lawson would later be disqualified from qualifying for a technical infringement with his MGU-K). Starting outside the top ten curiously was Oscar Piastri, who, after watching his team-mate go fastest in Q2, suffered an early exit.

As Bernie Collins explained on Sky Sports, all the other teams used a new set of soft tyres first and carried on with them provided that they yielded a decent lap time. However, McLaren instead chose to try a used set first before then switching to a fresh set, putting extra pressure on the Aussie to make his lap in Q2 count, and when he couldn’t due to what he described as no grip at the rear. He had to come to terms with a thirteenth, now twelfth place start.

Audi continue to finish just shy of the top ten, and we had one Williams out in Q1 and another through to Q2. But after showing strong pace in Austin, Fernando Alonso was hopeful he might get his Aston Martin into the second round. But a car failure forcing him to park up in the stadium brought those hopes crashing down. He also faced a reprimand from the FIA for not leaving his steering wheel in place after getting out of his car.

Hirakawa can hold his head high, despite early exit

One of the biggest stories on Saturday morning. That threatened to overshadow any story that might have unfolded on the track, was the announcement from the Haas F1 team that 32-year-old Ryo Hirokawa, who already took part in the first practice session on Friday along with ten other rookies, would be replacing Esteban Ocon for the rest of the weekend.

Esteban Ocon, of course, is leaving Haas at the end of this season and does not have a seat next year, with Brazilian Rafael Camara replacing him. He appeared to have an intense disagreement with his team over the radio on Friday over the run plan and tyre choice he was on, as he wanted softs. But the team put him on mediums, leading to him saying “don’t do this to me” over team radio. Though he has since put out a statement denying any physical violence, it would appear that the disagreement was even more intense than it had first appeared. Ocon was not even at the track, let alone in his car, the following day.

As much as we can speculate about what might have gone on – and right now all it can be is speculation – Hirokawa, who will be the youngest debutante in the sport since André Loterer in 2014, appeared completely unfazed given how little time he had to prepare for another practice, qualifying and then an F1 race. He didn’t exactly set the timing screens alight with a 1:18.958 time that was good enough for 19th (18th after Lawson’s disqualification). But he did everything that could have been expected, as race engineer Laura Mueller told him not to beat himself up too much.

The oldest polesitter in 44 years is car number 44

Taking pole position at age 41 makes Lewis Hamilton more than justified in declaring himself to be “built different.” He is the oldest polesitter since Mario Andretti took pole at the Italian Grand Prix in1982, and has broken his own record for the most pole positions in F1. What is perhaps most interesting is how long Lewis has waited to once again be able to start a race with no one ahead of him or beside him.

His last pole position was at the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix. It was his only one in the ground-effect era – a ruleset which is widely seen as one that did not fit Hamilton’s driving style. Despite appearing more at home in this year’s more skittish cars, his best qualifying result had been second at Barcelona-Catalunya (which he would go on to win). So he could have been forgiven for thinking it may not come this year, but he has shown that he can still operate at the top level.

Of course, even if he is to win. He needs Kimi Antonelli, who won last time out in Austin, out of the points to stop him from becoming the world champion. If George Russell, the man starting alongside him, wins, Kimi will need to score one point or fewer to prevent the championship from being decided. But if the weekend pans out as expected, with a Ferrari driver taking pole. Kimi becoming world champion, it will feel like a birthday and Christmas all rolled into one for people from Italy…