The air temperature for the qualifying in Mexico was over 20° C and the track temperature at the start of qualifying was at 23° C. Same weather as Free Practice 1 & 2, mostly sunny.
Qualifying as always was divided into two groups of five and two groups of six who have one-shot to set a lap time. The group is based on World Drivers’ Standings.
Qualifying Group 1
Qualifying started at 10:45 PM (Pakistan Standard Time). Drivers decided to go out at the last minute and Sam Bird was the first to go but was heavily disappointed after he had to stop his car at turn 5. D’Ambrosio, who had started his lap was held by Frijins but surprisingly Frijins wasn’t penalized for the action. Jean-Eric was the last driver from Group 1 to get out of pits. Da Costa set a fastest lap of 59.778 with Jean-Eric in 2nd. Qualifying Group 1 ended with Da Costa in 1st, Jean-Eric in 2nd and Frijins in 3rd. Sam Bird couldn’t set any lap time.
Qualifying Group 2
Alexander Sims of BMW was the first to get out of pits. He went to set 2nd fastest lap with just 0.004s behind his teammate, Da Costa. Andre Lotterer who was performing very well for the first two sectors of lap, messed up his 3rd sector and set 4th fastest lap. Mahindra’s Pascal Wehrlein got a good exit coming out of third sector and managed to set a fastest lap time of 59.604. Qualifying Group 2 ended with Pascal in 1st and Frijins in 6th.
Qualifying Group 3
Qualifying Group 3 started and Mortara was the first to get out of pits. Jose Lopez oversteered coming out of turn 11 and almost hit his car at the last chicane. Oliver Rowland out of nowhere set the fastest lap of session, a 59.593. Qualifying Group 3 ended Rowland in 1st, Wehrlein in 2nd and Lucas Di Grassi in 3rd.
Qualifying Group 4
Felipe Massa was the first to be out there when Qualifying Group 4 started. Massa set the third fastest lap of the session. Stoffel Vandoorne on the other hand was struggling a lot and correcting his oversteer, he only managed a 16th place despite fantastic performance in Free Practices. His teammate, Paffett beat him and he was 16th at the end of Qualifying Group 4. At the end of Group Qualifying, Rowland was first, Wehrlein second and Massa third.
SuperPole
SuperPole started at 11:30 PM (Pakistan Standard Time) and Da Costa was the first driver to go for an out-lap. Da Costa managed to set a lap time of 59.819. He was followed by Di Grassi who set a fastest lap time of 59.653. Felipe Massa was just four hundredths of a second down on Di Grassi’s lap time. Rowland was the last to get out of pits. He had a huge lock up at the last chicane but he managed to get 4th place.
It was Pascal Wehrlein who conquered the SuperPole with an amazing lap time of 59.347. Lucas Di Grassi was in 2nd and Felipe Massa was in 3rd.
Stay tune for more. Race will start at 3 AM (Pakistan Standard Time).
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