Max Verstappen on pole at the Mexico City Grand Prix

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took pole for the Mexico City Grand Prix, fending off a challenge from Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

Mercedes had one of their most competitive qualifying performances this year but Verstappen was too quick, taking pole by 0.304 seconds.

Briton Russell held on to second place despite a mistake on his final lap.

Countryman Hamilton recovered from having his first lap deleted to take third, 0.05secs slower than Russell.

Ferrari, the pole position kings of 2022 so far, were nowhere – Carlos Sainz was in fifth place, behind the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, and 0.576secs from pole.

Team-mate Charles Leclerc, who has more poles than anyone so far this year, was edged out by the upgraded Alfa Romeo of Valtteri Bottas and could manage only seventh place.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was eighth, ahead of the Alpines of Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon.

#MexicoGP #ImF1Fan #F1

‘A child could have calculated Mercedes’ strategy error’

Mercedes cannot cope when they are under pressure – that’s according to RTL pundit Allard Kalff, who believes they “lose their way”.

And pressure is what Mercedes felt at the United States Grand Prix.

With Lewis Hamilton losing pole position to Max Verstappen at the Circuit of The Americas, the Briton was under pressure to get it right in Sunday’s 56-lap grand prix.

He did that at the start, taking the lead off Verstappen into the first corner. However, Red Bull responded by changing up their pit-stop strategy and bringing in Verstappen early.

He got the undercut on Hamilton at both stops with Mercedes opting not to react to Verstappen’s second stop, only bringing in Hamilton eight laps later.

Mercedes late again to react. They are making the same mistakes in strategy like Ferrari do.