MEXICO CITY (AP) — Ferrari's Carlos Sainz Jr. won his first pole of the season at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, and Sergio Perez's miserable Formula 1 season continued Saturday when he failed to advance out of the first round of qualifying at the Mexico City Grand Prix. “Very happy and great couple of laps, a lot of times around Mexico you always have a feeling you cannot put a lap together and it's extremely difficult,” Sainz said.
“Honestly, my two laps were pretty much identical, almost perfect. Very happy because that's not normally the case around Mexico with how tricky it is.” Three-time defending champion Max Verstappen , who had an engine change Saturday, qualified second for Red Bull.
Verstappen is a five-time winner in Mexico City. Lando Norris of McLaren, who is chasing Verstappen for the driver championship, qualified third and was followed by Charles Leclerc of Ferrari, who won the United States Grand Prix last week. Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton qualified fifth and sixth, while Kevin Magnussen of Haas was seventh.
Pierre Gasly of Alpine, Alex Albon of Williams and Nico Hülkenberg of Haas rounded out the top 10. But the focus in Mexico City is on Perez, who is under intense pressure to keep his seat with Red Bull after he signed a contract extension in June . His poor performance this season — he’s winless for the first time since joining the team in 2021, is eighth in the driver standings and has crashed three times �.