Ricciardo takes sensational pole in Mexico - Qualifying results & report

Red Bull completed a front row lockout in Mexico with Daniel Ricciardo taking pole position. Max Verstappen was denied the F1 record of youngest ever pole sitter and settled for second with Lewis Hamilton behind in third.

With the risk of rain in the air, qualifying got underway and it was Pierre Gasly who was first out on track. His weekend already compromised with another engine change and subsequent grid penalty hanging over his head.

Mercedes’ mechanics were able to complete the engine change on Valtteri Bottas’ car in time and he was sent out immediately also, closely followed by Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton.

Interestingly the Silver Arrows opted for the ultrasoft tyres, the only ones in the pitlane to do so. Sebastian Vettel set the marker with a new track record which was comfortably beaten by both Red Bulls on their first laps.

Hamilton was able to improve on his second lap on the same set to go within touching distance of Raikkonen on the hypers. Vettel was unable to improve on his second run, locking up and cutting across the grass at turn one.

Fernando Alonso was the first to fall foul of track limits and had his first time of the session deleted.

Mercedes opted to send both cars back out on the hypersoft tyres and they both improved by almost a full second, Bottas able to go just that bit faster than his teammate with a stellar second sector time.

Alonso was able to go seventh which became 14th in the final flurry of laps which saw Romain Grosjean, Stoffel Vandoorne, Kevin Magnussen, Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin eliminated from Q1.

Both Ferrari and Mercedes opted to run the ultrasoft tyres for Q2 in order to gain in race strategy tomorrow.

Red Bull shortly followed suit, Hamilton set a time to beat that only Verstappen was able to beat by 0.004s to go fastest.

Once more Ferrari started the lap strongly, but their pace fell away with the tyres towards the end which saw Vettel slot in behind Hamilton and Raikkonen behind Bottas.

The midfield battle looked settled after the initial runs. As in practice, Sauber and Renault showed their strong pace and filled the rest of the top ten positions.

Esteban Ocon, Alonso, home-favourite Sergio Perez, Brendon Hartley and Pierre Gasly were all eliminated in Q2.

Ferrari jumped out the garages first for Q3 and was quickly followed out in formation. Red Bull opted to hold their drivers until the end.

Round one went to Vettel until Verstappen pulled a great lap out of the bag to grab provisional pole.

Elsewhere Hamilton was in touching distance of Vettel but Raikkonen, Ricciardo and Bottas looked distant from their respective teammates’ times.

In the final moments, it looked as though nobody would be taking pole away from Verstappen until one Australian popped up with a mighty time to deny the Dutchman the record. Hamilton went close but couldn’t stop the Red Bull dominance.