Plenty of stories going into qualifying for the 2026 F1 Mexico City GP, with Lando Norris in the mix for pole, Kimi Antonelli hoping to setup a great starting position for his championship bid, and Ryō Hirakawa joining Haas to replace Esteban Ocon in a shocking mid-weekend swap.
Q1: Alonso out with technical issues early after strong initial lap
First out in Q1 is hometown-hero Sergio Pérez, who had to sit out FP3 due to technical issues. He would be the first to set a time, hadn’t he backed-out of his attempt. This means Nico Hülkenberg takes the honours.
Team mate Gabriel Bortoleto slots in right behind him, before both Audi’s are demoted by Fernado Alonso. His team mate Lance Stroll takes a scenic detour in turn 4, requiring him to try again.
Hirakawa’s first full-speed qualifying lap puts him in between the Audi’s. Alex Albon places his Williams on provisional sixth right behind him. Isack Hadjar looks to beat Alonso’s provisional P1, but a mistake in turn 12 puts him second, only for his time to be deleted due to track limits.
Oscar Piastri puts his McLaren in first as Alonso is told to stop the car on track. And right as Lewis Hamilton completes his first lap the red flag is thrown, aborting the attempts of all those behind the Ferrari driver.
Q1: Hirakawa out on debut
After a short break most of the field lines up at the end of the pit lane, as race control announces Alonso’s incident is noted for general safety reasons. Max Verstappen is the last to leave the pits, except for Hamilton and Piastri, who both have a time set already.
Pérez has a big lock-up into turn 1, ruining the set of tyres and forcing the Mexican back to the pits. A scrappy final sector sees Hadjar take provisional seventh, before Charles Leclerc takes P1. Norris and Verstappen take P2 and P3, respectively, with Antonelli claiming third a few moments later. The other Mercedes driver, George Russell, takes provisional fifth.
Piastri takes second just before Hamilton reclaims first place, almost two-tenths clear of Leclerc. Hadjar in in 15th in the meantime, meaning he has to go out a third time to ensure a spot in Q2. And it pays of: he goes second.
At the back it is the usual suspects who are knocked out: Albon, Alonso, Hirakawa, Stroll and both Cadillacs. The Haas rookie was nine tenths behind his team mate Ollie Bearman.
Knocked-out of Q1
- Albon
- Alonso
- Hirakawa
- Stroll
- Pérez
- Bottas
Q2: Shock exit for Piastri
Antonelli was the first out on track in Q2 of the 2026 F1 Mexico City GP, but with the Mercedes driver opting for an additional build lap, the first representative time is set by Hülkenberg. Norris cannot find the time to beat the Audi’s as he makes a mistake into turn 13. Piastri does go to the top, but loses the place quickly to Leclerc.
Hamilton was looking at the first spot, but completely goes of the road in the Foro Sol stadium, throwing away his purple sectors. Antonelli and Russell are both behind the surprising Arvid Lindblad, as Hadjar encounters traffic in the final sector. This puts him sixth, while Verstappen is going to the top spot a few moments later.
After the first laps, both Norris and Hamilton are in the drop-zone, meaning both have to take another shot. Norris does so immediately, and goes to P3, putting him in safety. It does put his team mate on the bubble however.
The second time around Hamilton makes no mistakes in the stadium, and despite two yellow sectors, he is in provisional third. This pushes Piastri in the drop zone, as Hadjar goes to fourth. Russell takes away that place a few moments later.
Behind them Hülkenberg improves his time, but not his place. Pierre Gasly goes ninth, before Piastri tries to get back in the top 10. He however gets no further than 13th. Liam Lawson goes ninth, pushing Hülkenberg out, before Norris decides he wants P1 for the session. Next to Piastri, both Audi’s, Franco Colapinto, Carlos Sainz and Bearman are out.
Knocked-out of Q2
- Hülkenberg
- Colapinto
- Piastri
- Bortoleto
- Bearman
- Sainz
Q3: Leclerc mistake opens the door for Hamilton 105th career pole
The first real times of Q3 are put on the board by the Ferrari’s, with Leclerc being four tenths clear of Hamilton. Both Mercedes drivers don’t have an answer, but Norris does, as he get’s within two tenths of Leclerc.
Gasly manages to get ahead of Antonelli, who had a scrappy second sector. Hadjar makes a mistake in turn 13, which ends his lap. Verstappen then takes two purple sectors, but fails to take provisional pole after his second sector is not good enough.
For the final shoot-out Verstappen is the last to take the track. First to set a time is Russell, and he goes to provisional pole. Hadjar goes to fifth, and has a reprimand for crossing the line at the pit lane entry.
Hamilton then crosses the line and is nine one-thousands quicker than Russell. Leclerc, Antonelli and Norris all fail to make it as the Monegasque had a moment in Turns 10 and 11, but Verstappen is up entering the stadium. However, he makes a mistake in turn 13, making him abandon the lap eventually.
This means Hamilton gets his first pole position since 2023, and extending his record to 105 pole positions. With a huge run to the first turn it doesn’t guarantee anything, but it sure will set up an interesting start.
Q3 results
- Hamilton
- Russell
- Leclerc
- Verstappen
- Antonelli
- Norris
- Hadjar
- Lawson
- Lindblad
- Gasly
