Madness on the time table before qualifying for the Mexican GP

Unpredictable. crazy This is how the qualifying session for the Mexican F1 GP looks like this Saturday (11:00 pm), after Free Practice 3 which has turned any pool upside down. If the parity was already maximum on Friday, in the last training session before the real fire, it was even greater, with many surprises. On a track where the air density is lower due to its more than 2,000 meters above sea level, and therefore, on cars with less downforce, the time table went crazy. The Pole has a clear favourite: Max Verstappen. But from there, anyone who dares to declare that he knows who will enter Q2 and who will fight close to the Max, is a genius, or perhaps a ‘ghost’, a perfect costume to celebrate the Day of the Dead early at the Hermanos Rodríguez Autodrome. The equality is immense and the surprises abound.

The third session was led by Max Verstappen with 1’17″887, but since then, the order seen in Free Practice 3 has no kind of logic or explanation. The only one: that on this track the differences between of teams can Minors and traffic also make things difficult for drivers to produce clean laps This explains why Alex Albon, who had the right time before Verstappen overtook him, was in just 70 thousandths behind the Dutchman in 2nd position with his Williams.

‘Checo’ Pérez, the local idol, is 3rd, 0″139 behind the time achieved by Max Verstappen in heavy traffic. That is to say, the Dutchman’s time could be greatly improved. Russell was 4th at 0″361, with a Mercedes that improved dramatically after its sudden drop in performance on the first day in Mexico. Piastri was 5th at 0.505 and Bottas, with his Alfa Romeo, 6th at 0.550. Tsunoda was 7th at 0.563, Norris was 8th at 0.593, Ricciardo was 9th at 0.612 and Hamilton closed out the Top-10 at 0.635. There were 6 different cars in the top 7. And Ferrari and Aston Martin were missing from the party, as they didn’t show their potential at the end of the session.

Alonso and Sainz, without showing their potential

The third free practice session ended with big doubts about the potential of Ferrari and Aston Martin. Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were unable to make their last attempt on soft rubber due to traffic.

Indeed, Carlos Sainz was distracted by Lance Stroll. He found it in a very fast section and ended up spinning. “This kid, honestly, if he doesn’t get sanctioned… he can’t do it in free practice,” said the man from Madrid, furious with the Canadian for making some plan with his tires that had been rendered useless. He wasted the tires he could have spared for qualifying and did so in vain, as he could not complete a turn.

Aston Martin is also a mystery. Fernando Alonso spent several minutes in the box because something failed in the third element which connects both sides of the front suspension and eventually he didn’t go any further. He finished 17th, possibly saving tires for a very tight qualifying battle. Alonso was left behind at 1.584, a time that shouldn’t be real. The actual speed of his car for qualifying is unknown.