Red Bull had looked like Hermanos Rodriguez as favorites to take pole after dominating practice at the Autodromo, but Bottas and Hamilton turned things around in Q3 when Mercedes responded with a big statement.
Bottas beat Hamilton and only secured his third pole of the season with a stunning first lap 0.145 seconds faster than his teammate, while Verstappen was a frustrated third for Red Bull.
A chaotic opening run left Verstappen 0.350 seconds behind Bottas before his final lap was ruined after Yuki Tsunoda and Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez both ran far in the middle sector so that he only finished third.
Mercedes’s remarkable turnaround coincided with Red Bull’s reverse qualifying. Red Bull appeared to be facing a problem with the rear wing affecting its cars, with mechanics frantically working on the rear of Verstappen and Perez’s cars leading up to the first quarter.
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Home hero Perez was fourth ahead of Pierre Gasly from AlphaTauri and Ferrari from Carlos Sainz, who left McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo behind by just 0.002 seconds.
Charles Leclerc, Tsunoda and Lando Norris completed the rest of the top 10 for Ferrari, AlphaTauri and McLaren.
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Sebastian Vettel did not make it into Q3 because he was three tenths behind the top 10 in the best-placed Aston Martin.
Kimi Raikkonen was two tenths behind Vettel in 12th place, although the Alfa Romeo driver is being investigated because he crossed the white line at the end of the pit lane and drove on under red flags.
George Russell made another Q2 appearance in his Williams on his way to 13th place, despite a five-place grid penalty after a gearbox change that dropped him from the starting order.
A spin at Turn 12 in the closing stages of the second session left Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi in 14th place ahead of Esteban Ocon as Alpine was fighting for the pace.
Fernando Alonso was the shock eliminator of Q1 in a miserable qualifying for Alpine after the two-time world champion was denied a place in Q2 by his team-mate, who had an engine penalty.
The Spaniard finished qualifying only in 16th place ahead of the Haas duo Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin, who were almost half a second apart.
Q1 was interrupted by an early red flag after Lance Stroll suffered a serious fall in the Peraltada, when the Canadian went far on the dirty part of the track after the corner and lost control and twisted violently into the crash barriers.
The incident caused a long delay in the session while the barrier was being repaired.
Stroll, who was not injured in the shunt, was still able to drive a lap time by crossing the finish line in an accident, albeit by far the slowest of the 20 drivers.
In the end it made no difference as Stroll was supposed to start from the end of the grid with Tsunoda, Norris and Ocon after an engine penalty.
Full results from qualifying for the 2021 Mexico City F1 Grand Prix.
The post Bottas takes Mexico F1 pole when Mercedes locks out the front row first appeared on monter-une-startup.
