2016 F1 Round 19 Mexican GP Qualifying, Hamilton Takes Pole Ahead of Rosberg

Hamilton took pole position in Mexico with a 1:18.704, his tenth pole of the season. Rosberg improved to 1:18.958 on his final flying lap, moving from fourth back to second to give Mercedes a front-row lockout.

Archive image from the 2016 Mexican Grand Prix

Hamilton had already set his 1:18.704 on the first Q3 runs. Verstappen and Ricciardo were provisionally second and third, while Rosberg was only fourth. On the final runs, Rosberg moved ahead of both Red Bulls, leaving them on the second row.

Verstappen finished third with a 1:19.054, with Ricciardo fourth, 0.079 seconds behind his team-mate. Both improved on their best laps from FP3 but could not prevent Rosberg’s late improvement.

Hülkenberg qualified fifth, ahead of Räikkönen in sixth and Vettel in seventh. The Force India driver beat both Ferraris, with Vettel’s final time of 1:19.381 just 0.005 seconds slower than Räikkönen.

Bottas and Massa qualified eighth and ninth, followed by Sainz in tenth. Alonso was 11th and Pérez 12th. The track temperature had risen to around 54 degrees Celsius before Q3, with conditions for the final runs markedly better than on Friday.

Palmer did not take part in qualifying. Renault discovered a crack in his car’s monocoque after FP3 and could not replace the chassis in time. The official qualifying classification therefore contained only 21 drivers. The official starting grid placed Palmer 21st, with permission to race at the stewards’ discretion.

Button briefly rose to tenth in Q1, then progressed before being eliminated in 13th in Q2. Magnussen, Ericsson and Wehrlein finished 14th to 16th and were also eliminated in Q2. Gutiérrez, Kvyat, Nasr, Ocon and Grosjean finished 17th to 21st and were eliminated in Q1.

Hamilton and Rosberg occupied the front row, followed by Verstappen and Ricciardo. Räikkönen would start from the third row and Vettel from the fourth, with both Ferrari drivers behind Hülkenberg.