Mexican Grand Prix qualifying: Formula One 2026 – live

Yellow cleared. Phew.

Yellow flags … Could settle things.

Leclerc second, +0.165. Is this another false qualifying dawn for Ferrari?

Red Bull struggling, with Verstappen sixth and Hadjar 15th, the latter raging at the final sector. But Hamilton goes fastest in 1:17.341.

The drop zone looks like Albon, Alonso, Hirakawa, Stroll, Perez and Bottas.

Antonelli third fastest, +0.386.

Charles Leclerc nails a 1:17.532, with Norris +0.201.

Pierre Gasly puts in a 1:18.194 to go fastest.

Apparently Alonso did not put his steering wheel back in after getting out of his car.

We are back under way.

Fernando Alonso noted for “general safety”. Did he walk on the track after packing it in?

André Lotterer, another World Endurance Champonship winner, was the oldest F1 driver, for Caterham in 2014, when approaching 33.

Bernie Collins says Hamilton was good. “Stop the car now, stop the car now,” comes a replay of the Aston Martin conversation with Alonso.

11min 7sec left when they restart.

Hamilton did a 1:18.249, but was it before the red flag?

Ouch. Alonso told to stop the car on the track. Session stopped.

It’s not all about the kid. At 32, Ryo Hirakawa – a Le Mans and World Endurance Championhip winner – is F1’s second oldest debutant.

But Fernando Alonso goes into the 1:18s, and Aston Martin have ambitions of reaching Q2,

Nico Hulkenberg puts in a 1:19.502, with Bortoleto +0.281.

Sergio Pérez is on his 300th start, and on his home track to boot.

And we are go, with the bottom of the field getting out early.

As ever in Mexico, altitude will be a topic for conversation. It’s between David Croft and Karun Chandhok, with Martin Brundle giving the weekend a miss.

Portentous driver countdown time, with Hirakawa in there.

And here are the constructors’ standings:

1 Mercedes 🇩🇪 607pts
2 Ferrari 🇮🇹 474
3 Red Bull 🇦🇹 355
4 McLaren 🇬🇧 355
5 Racing Bulls 🇮🇹 102
6 Alpine 🇫🇷 69
7 Haas 🇺🇸 30
8 Audi 🇩🇪 23
9 Williams 🇬🇧 12
10 Aston Martin 🇬🇧 7
11 Cadillac 🇺🇸 0

Let’s have a look at the drivers’ standings, with less than 10 minutes to Q1:

1 Kimi Antonelli 🇮🇹 Mercedes 365pts
2 George Russell 🇬🇧 Mercedes 242
3 Lewis Hamilton 🇬🇧 Ferrari 241
4 Max Verstappen 🇳🇱 Red Bull 236
5 Charles Leclerc 🇲🇨 Ferrari 233
6 Lando Norris 🇬🇧 McLaren 211
7 Oscar Piastri 🇦🇺 McLaren 144
8 Isack Hadjar 🇫🇷 Red Bull 105
9 Liam Lawson 🇳🇿 Racing Bulls 77
10 Pierre Gasly 🇫🇷 Alpine 42
11 Arvid Lindblad 🇬🇧 Racing Bulls 38
12 Franco Colapinto 🇦🇷 Alpine 27
13 Oliver Bearman 🇬🇧 Haas 23
14 Nico Hülkenberg 🇩🇪 Audi 13
15 Gabriel Bortoleto 🇧🇷 Audi 10
16 Esteban Ocon 🇫🇷 Haas 7
17 Fernando Alonso 🇪🇸 Aston Martin 7
18 Carlos Sainz 🇪🇸 Williams 7
19 Alexander Albon 🇹🇭 Williams 5
20 Yuki Tsunoda 🇯🇵 Racing Bulls 1

Yet to score:
Lance Stroll 🇨🇦 Aston Martin
Valtteri Bottas 🇫🇮 Cadillac
Sergio Pérez 🇲🇽 Cadillac
Ryo Hirakawa 🇯🇵 Haas

Mekies is doing his best to downplay suggestions that Verstappen could come to the team and urge them not to give Lawson a seat next year.

Live, Laurent Mekies is talking Lawson-Verstappen. Naturally enough the Red Bull principal is playing the incident down.

On the track, meanwhile, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc topped both of Friday’s practice sessions, but it was a different story on Saturday:

Lando Norris, who won last year’s race from pole position, topped the times ahead of his probable successor Kimi Antonelli by just 0.001sec in Saturday’s final practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix. The 26-year-old Briton clocked a fastest lap in his McLaren in 1min 17.600sec while the 20-year-old Italian recorded 1:17.601 for Mercedes. He finished ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc as he seeks to become the sport’s youngest champion and Italy’s first since 1953.

Leclerc was fastest in both sessions on Friday and topped most of FP3 on mediums before the teams switched to soft tyres.

Oscar Piastri was fourth in the second McLaren ahead of Red Bull’s disgruntled four-time champion Max Verstappen, who complained his brakes were not working, the seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton in the second Ferrari and George Russell in the second Mercedes.

Isack Hadjar was eighth in the second Red Bull ahead of the two Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson and Arvid Lindblad. AFP

Back to Red Bull, where Isack Hadjar was put on the naughty step by the stewards:

Isack Hadjar was ⁠given a formal warning on Saturday after the Red Bull driver pushed away a ⁠Formula One ⁠guest ​in the Mexico City Grand Prix paddock. The Frenchman was hurrying ⁠to first practice on Friday but stopped to have a photograph with ⁠a young fan when he was approached by ​a man in ‌what stewards, ‌who summoned Hadjar to a hearing, said ‌was an “aggressive manner“.

“One security person was walking behind him and was unable to intervene and prevent what was tantamount to an invasion of the driver’s private space,” the ‌stewards said. “The driver initially resisted the move by placing his hand on ​the waist of the guest, holding him at bay, then the driver pushed him aside with his open right hand.“

The stewards ⁠said Hadjar was in breach of the ​regulations ​but considered various factors ​in mitigation, including that the action ​was ‌uninvited and aggressive, ​that ​the driver did not have sufficient security and that others had experienced problems in moving through the paddock. Reuters

Lawson’s seat at Racing Bulls is in doubt for next season, but Estaban Ocon has lost his at Haas for this weekend, as well as being on his way in the winter. Our Giles Richards reports:

Before any running on Saturday had begun the Haas team made a shock decision to drop their driver Esteban Ocon from competing in the race weekend. The Frenchman was replaced in qualifying by the reserve driver Ryo Hirakawa. The 32-year-old Japanese driver, who has won two World Endurance Championships and the Le Mans 24 Hours, will make his F1 race debut on Sunday.

Ocon is set to be replaced next season by the Ferrari junior Rafael Camara and his sudden removal from competition in Mexico suggests relations between him and the team have broken down. He had an angry exchange with his race engineer, Laura Mü

Source: www.theguardian.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.