Mexican Grand Prix – Warm Up
Everything you need to know about tyres, penalties and the final starting grid for the nineteenth Grand Prix of the season.
Unlike almost all qualifying sessions of the season, the first row of the grid is now occupied not even by Ferrari, but by the drivers from the Red Bull team: Daniel Riccciardo managed to claim the pole by 0.026s from his teammate Max Verstappen.
Hamilton qualified 3rd, Vettel 4th, two Finns – Bottas and Raikkonen – will start the race 5th and 6th respectively.
All the above mentioned drivers showed their best lap times in Q2 on Ultrasoft tyres, as the other part of the top-10 (two Renaults and two Saubers) did the same on Hypersoft.
Pirelli has brought three types of compounds for the Mexican Grand Prix – pink Hypersoft, purple Ultrasoft and red Supersoft. Here's which compounds every driver still has available for the race.
Pirelli has also revealed the quickest strategy for the race:
“Fastest strategy is a two-stopper. Either: one stint on ultrasoft for 9 laps then two 31-lap stints on supersoft. Or: one stint on hypersoft for 5 laps then two 33-lap stints on supersoft.
The second-quickest strategy is a one-stopper, although this needs plenty of tyre management. One stint on ultrasoft for 15-18 laps, then supersoft to the flag.”
As for the power unit changes and penalties ahead of the Grand Prix, let’s overview the below small list.
- Pierre Gasly – new internal combustion engine (ICE), turbocharger (TC), motor generator unit-neat(MGU-H) and gearbox
- Kimi Raikkonen, Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, Max Verstappen will also use new gearboxes.
Gasly received a 15 places grid penalty for engine changes and additionally 5 places for the gearbox.
And lastly, take a look at the starting grid for the Mexican Grand Prix (Note that Romain Grosjean was given 3 place grid penalty for causing a collision during United States Grand Prix last week):
|
1st row |
1° – Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull – 1.14.759s |
2° – Max Verstappen, Red Bull – 1.14.785s |
|
2nd row |
3° – Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes – 1.14.894s |
4° – Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari – 1.14.970s |
|
3rd row |
5° – Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes – 1.15.160s |
6° – Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari – 1.15.330s |
|
4th row |
7° – Nico Hulkenberg, Renault – 1.15.827s |
8° – Carlos Sainz, Renault – 1.16.084s |
|
5th row |
9° – Charles Leclerc, Sauber – 1.16.189s |
10°– Marcus Ericsson, Sauber – 1.16.513s |
|
6th row |
11° – Esteban Ocon, Racing Point Force India – 1.16.844s |
12° – Fernando Alonso, McLaren – 1.16.871s |
|
7th row |
13° – Sergio Perez, Racing Point Force India – 1.17.167s |
14° – Brendon Hartley, Toro Rosso – 1.17.184s |
|
8th row |
15° – Stoffel Vandoorne, McLaren – 1.16.966s |
16° – Kevin Magnussen, Haas – |
|
9th row |
17° – Lance Stroll, Williams – 1.17.689s |
18° – Romain Grosjean, Haas – 1.16.911s – 3 place grid penalty |
|
10th row |
19° – Sergey Sirotkin , Williams – 1.17.886s |
20° – Pierre Gasly, Toro Rosso – no time – 15 place + 5 place grid penalty |
