Andrea Stella says: “The car during this session it was competitive, Carlos in the final session raced well, the natural progression with Lando we could’ve been there.

“But the laps in Q3 were not great. In the second one it wasn’t very clean, but it was important to be in the first or second row.

“Encouraging it’s performing well, but we lacked a bit of performance from execution, especially with Oscar.”

“It was a very good session because the two laps of Q3 were both good enough for pole.

“It was not obvious before that we were much more focused on the race pace, and it’s very good news for us.

“We were not expecting to get pole position, we were much more focused on tomorrow.”

“It’s tough to say,” Lando Norris says.

“None of us have done proper long runs on the tyres that we’re going to be on tomorrow. There’s question marks for all of us but Ferrari have been very good in qualy and long-run pace over the last couple of races.

“It’s going to be tough but we’re in a good position, so I’m looking forward to it.”

“Very happy and a great couple of laps. A lot of times around Mexico you always have the feeling like you cannot put a lap together and it’s extremely difficult with how much sliding there is.

“But today, honestly my two laps in Q3 were pretty much identical, almost perfect. I just put two really solid laps in Q3, enough for pole, and very happy because that’s not normally the case around Mexico with how tricky it is.”

Lewis Hamilton made a mistake in Q3 which may have cost him a couple of places on the grid for tomorrow’s Mexico Grand Prix.

Hamilton lost time after sliding at the penultimate corner, which saw George Russell pip him for fifth.

It left Toto Wolff frustrated though, with Mercedes four tenths away from pole.

Hamilton did indeed confirm an improvement by announcing on his radio that the car felt “different” from FP3 to qualifying.

“It’s always tough to say, but I’m pretty happy with third, honestly.

“I feel like I got to the limit of the car quite quickly, which made us look good. But I struggled to get a lot more out of it in the final two laps.

“Carlos and Max did good laps, especially Carlos has been very quick all weekend. I’m happy with third.”

2) Max Verstappen, Red Bull

4) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

5) George Russell, Mercedes

6) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes

10) Nico Hülkenberg, Haas

13) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin

14) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin

15) Valtteri Bottas, Sauber

16) Franco Colapinto, Williams

17) Oscar Piastri, McLaren

18) Sergio Perez, Red Bull

Max Verstappen on the pressure of Q3 as he bids for four wins in a row in Mexico: “A lot, yesterday I barely did any laps, we’re playing catch-up.

“My lap time got taken away, it added more pressure, I’m very happy to be on the front row, I didn’t expect that to be possible.

“It’s one of the hardest tracks to get right, low down force, it’s easy to get a lockout or a slide.”

Here comes Norris… It’s only THIRD!

Verstappen’s only lap launches him onto the front row.

It’s Sainz and Verstappen, then Norris and Leclerc!

Russell and Hamilton on row three. Magnussen outqualifies Gasly and Albon outqualifies Hulkenberg.

The Ferraris are out and Leclerc starts well, so too Sainz, the Scuderia have timed this well it seems.

Sainz on top and the better of the two red cars, but both drivers looking to defend the top two spots. The Spaniard is taking provisional pole…

1. Sainz, 2. Leclerc, 3. Russell, 4. Hamilton, 5. Norris, 6. Gasly, 7. Albon, 8. Hulkenberg, 9. Magnussen, 10. Verstappen (out lap)