Nico Rosberg wins pole position in Mexico
Nico Rosberg has won the pole position for the Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix at the Circuit Hermanos Rodriguez. This is the fourth pole position in a row for the Mercedes driver who has a good chance for becoming the championship runner-up again.
Lewis Hamilton was the first ever to go under 1:21 (1:20.808) seconds at this circuit, but soon, Sebastian Vettel beat that time by 0.305s. However, at the end of the first qualifying round, Nico Rosberg was back at the top with a lap time of 1:20.436. Will Stevens, Alexander Rossi, Felipe Nasr and Fernando Alonso failed to qualify to the next round, as did Jenson Button who couldn’t even get started.
Mercedes continued to push the limits during Q2 with Hamilton’s 1:19.829. That result was enough to hold off Vettel and Rosberg 0.2s behind. They had to find a way to hit back in Q3. Other drivers who were out of the final round were Kimi Raikkonen, who had to serve a five-place grid penalty due to a gearbox change, Marcus Ericsson, Pastor Maldonado, Romain Grosjean and Carlos Sainz.
In the last 12 minutes, the weather conditions became a little tricky with a slight drizzle starting to pour. Rosberg took the lead with 1:19.480s and managed to hold it until the end, leaving his teammate 0.188s behind. Vettel was third, beating Red Bull drivers Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo. Valtteri Bottas was in sixth place. Felipe Massa and Max Verstappen wil start from row four, while Force India cars will take over the fifth row with local favorite Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg.
