Saturday night shift: Max takes pole but loses it, Bottas crashes
F1 News
- Nicolás Quarles van Ufford
In case you missed all the action from last night at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, we got you covered! Here are all the main headlines from Saturday in Mexico, where Valtteri Bottas' crash and the consequences from it dominated the news.
Max takes pole position
At the venue where he's won the previous two Grands Prix, Max Verstappen took a very impressive pole position on Saturday afternoon, beating the track record by a thousandth of a second.
However, the end of Q3 was overshadowed by a massive shunt from Bottas, who slammed into the wall on the final corner of his second run, destroying his W10.
Shortly behind him came Lewis Hamilton and Verstappen, who barely had time to react as the accident had happened mere seconds before they came past. Verstappen was on a purple lap and didn't lift as he solidified his pole position, but not lifting would also be the cause of his eventual penalty
Read the full qualifying report here
Max' pole gets questioned after comments
Initially, Verstappen wasn't investigated for the incident. Then, the Dutchman openly admitted in the post qualifying press conference that he was aware of Bottas' crashed car when he approached him and he didn't lift.
When he said this, it made the FIA's collective head turn and they summoned the 22-year-old to the stewards in Mexico. It took a long time, but the stewards eventually made a decision on the situation.
Max loses his pole position to Leclerc
After a lot of deliberation, the stewards opted to strip Verstappen from his pole position and drop him three places, meaning he'll start from fourth place now rather than from the top of the grid.
Ferrari now have a front-row lock-out, with Charles Leclerc slotting into pole position, his seventh of the season, and Sebastian Vettel lining up next to him. Lewis Hamilton will start from behind, and Verstappen will join the Brit on the second starting row.
It should be noted that on a circuit like in Mexico, with a long run to turn one, starting on the second row can be a positive thing, as getting a slipstream into turn one can allow moves up the inside of Ferraris ahead.