Valtteri Bottas silenced a partisan Mexican crowd with a scintillating first lap that secured pole position for tomorrow's Mexico City Grand Prix.

Despite going into Qualifying as underdogs, Mercedes and Bottas surprised the championship leaders the fastest times in Q2 and Q3, with the Finn securing the 19th pole position of his Formula 1 career after his team leader Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen failed to improve on their final laps.

Five drivers went into Qualifying knowing that they would start from the back of the grid regardless of where they qualified, with Yuki Tsunoda, Lando Norris, Lance Stroll, and Esteban Ocon all consigned to the final three rows of the grid after all four drivers took on new power unit components.

George Russell picked up a five-place grid penalty after changing his race gearbox, which broke in FP2. The Brit's woes were compounded after his Williams mechanics discovered an issue with his power unit just before the start of the session.

Nicholas Latifi and both Haas drivers were the first to venture out on track, with the Canadian starting the session on the medium tires, whilst Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher went on the softs for the opening stages of Q1.

Stroll's already compromised session came to an end, eight minutes in after the Canadian lost the rear end of his Aston Martin on the exit of Turn 17, sending him straight into the barrier, with the red flag being brought out to clear the debris.

Kimi Raikkonen found himself under investigation for a red flag infringement after the Finn completed one extra lap as the session was stopped to retrieve Stroll's stranded Aston Martin.

When the action finally resumed after a lengthy delay, a queue of cars left the pits, with Tsunoda leading the field onto the cleaned-up track.

Carlos Sainz had a tricky restart to Q1, with the Spaniard briefly losing power as he exited the pits before eventually regaining power, much to the relief of his Ferrari mechanics.

Despite having issues with their rear wings, Verstappen and Perez set the early pace, with the Dutchman over six tenths quicker than Perez on his first fast lap with Bottas and Hamilton eventually splitting the Red Bull pair on their second runs.

For not the first time this season, Mazepin and Schumacher again ran into each other, during the latter stages of Q1, with Mazepin complaining that Schumacher was too slow into Turn 4.

The Russian then received a stern telling off from the Haas pit wall after questioning the team's decision not to let him past Schumacher.

That discussion between Mazepin and Schumacher would continue later in the Haas motorhome as both drivers were eliminated from Qualifying, with Fernando Alonso, Latifi and Stroll joining the warring Haas drivers on the sidelines for the rest of qualifying.

With just under five minutes left in Q2, Verstappen narrowly led Hamilton and Tsunoda, with Bottas fourth fastest and over three tenths down on the championship leader.  

Both Alfa Romeos were in the drop zone ahead of Ocon, Russell and Sebastian Vettel, who complained of a tare-off being stuck on his rear wing.

Antonio Giovinazzi's chances of escaping the drop zone quickly evaporated with a spin on the exit of Turn 12, ruining his final run with Vettel, Raikkonen, Russell and Ocon also being eliminated from qualifying.

Despite an early elimination from qualifying, Vettel would start 9th on the grid for tomorrow's race, with Raikkonen starting 10th ahead of Giovinazzi in 11th.

First, to throw down a gauntlet in Q3 was Bottas managed to set a sensationally quick 1: 15.875 to top the early stages of the session, with Hamilton over a tenth behind.

Verstappen's messy first lap was only good enough for third fastest, with Perez over a tenth back on his team leader in fourth.

Gasly took full advantage of teammate Tsunoda's tow with the fifth-fastest time whilst Charles Leclerc was sixth fastest ahead of Daniel Ricciardo and Sainz.

In spite of Red Bull's best efforts, Bottas managed to hold on and took a surprise pole position ahead of Hamilton and Verstappen, whilst Perez's final run was ruined with an off at Turn 11.

Gasly was the best of the rest in fifth ahead of Sainz, whilst Ricciardo managed to salvage some pride for McLaren with seventh ahead of Leclerc.