Lewis Hamilton edged George Russell on Saturday to take pole position for the Mexican Grand Prix, but it was a disastrous qualifying session for Aussie Oscar Piastri.

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As Hamilton grabbed his first pole position since 2023, his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc was third while championship leader Kimi Antonelli, who only needs to finish ninth on Sunday to ensure he clinches the world title, was fifth fastest in his Mercedes.

The Italian will start from fourth because Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who was fourth fastest, had already been handed a one-place grid penalty for a collision with Liam Lawson in practice on Friday.

Hamilton recorded a fastest time of 1 minute 16.514 seconds to edge Russell of Mercedes by 0.009sec with Leclerc at 0.119.

“Wow. That felt great. That feels good,” said Hamilton after becoming, at 41, the oldest man to grab a Grand Prix pole since Mario Andretti in 1982.

“I think this is my first pole with Ferrari, and 105, I like that number. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

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Oscar Piastri’s qualifying session came to an early end after the Aussie failed to make it through to Q3, finishing 13th in Q2.

But it was a controversial tyre strategy from McLaren that ultimately proved costly for Piastri.

McLaren opted to send Piastri out on a used set of soft tyres to start Q2, before switching to a fresh set later in the session.

That left the Aussie with just two opportunities to set a competitive time, but after having to abort his first flying lap, Piastri had just one final chance to secure his spot in Q3 and couldn’t get the job done.

Piastri was left frustrated following his final lap.

“I don’t know what happened, I had no rear grip,” Piastri said.

F1’s Bernie Collins questioned McLaren’s decision following Q2.

“What a risk McLaren took there. They had five sets of softs coming into this session,” Collins said.

“The majority of teams ran a new soft first, saw how the lap was then decide on the second run but they ran a used first, it wasn’t a good enough lap time, then went onto a new set.

“OK they allowed enough time to do two fast laps but because Piastri aborted the first lap, he only had one lap to do it and couldn’t do it.”

It was the first time Piastri had failed to reach Q3 since the same race in 2024, where he went on to finish eighth.

STARTING POSITIONS FOR MEXICO CITY RACE

1st – Lewis Hamilton

2nd – George Russell

3rd – Charles Leclerc

4th – Max Verstappen

5th – Kimi Antonelli

6th – Lando Norris

7th – Isack Hadjar

8th – Liam Lawson

9th – Arvid Lindblad

10th – Pierre Gasly

11th – Nico Hulkenberg

12th – Franco Colapinto

13th – Oscar Piastri

14th – Gabriel Bortoleto

15th – Oliver Bearman

16th – Carlos Sainz

17th – Alexander Albon

18th – Fernando Alonso

19th – Ryo Hirakawa

20th – Lance Stroll

21st – Sergio Perez

22nd – Valtteri Bottas

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