Hamilton snatches Ferrari's first 2026 pole by 0.009s from Russell in Mexico City

Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix on Saturday, giving Ferrari its first front-row start of the 2026 Formula 1 season with a margin of just 0.009 seconds over Mercedes’ George Russell at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Russell had wrested provisional pole from Charles Leclerc with his final Q3 run, only for Hamilton to respond with a fractionally quicker first sector that proved the difference. Leclerc, unable to match his team-mate on his own final attempt, will start third — 0.119 seconds adrift of Hamilton.

The result marks Hamilton’s first pole for Ferrari and ends the Scuderia’s wait for a qualifying benchmark in the new regulations cycle. It also sets up an intriguing front row dynamic, with Hamilton’s former Mercedes team-mate now his closest rival on the grid.

Max Verstappen was fourth in qualifying but will start fifth on Sunday after receiving a one-place grid penalty for an on-track incident with Liam Lawson during Friday practice. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli was fifth, and the entire top five was covered by less than two tenths of a second — a sign of how closely matched the field has become at altitude.

Lando Norris, who could have challenged for pole, was unable to string together a clean lap on his first run and aborted his second, leaving McLaren without a front-row presence. Isack Hadjar was seventh for Red Bull after sliding off at Turn 13 — a corner that proved a persistent weakness for the team all weekend. Lawson drops to ninth for his role in the Verstappen incident, promoting Racing Bulls team-mate Arvid Lindblad to eighth, with Pierre Gasly rounding out the top ten.

In Q2, Hamilton and Oscar Piastri both bailed out of their opening runs, but only Hamilton recovered. Piastri lost nearly half a second through the Esses on his second attempt due to a lack of rear grip and was eliminated in 13th, nine tenths behind pacesetter Norris. Gasly scraped through in tenth at the expense of Nico Hülkenberg, while Franco Colapinto took 12th and Gabriel Bortoleto exited in 14th.

Q1 was interrupted by a red flag when Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin ground to a halt at the Foro Sol arena with a power unit failure. The stoppage came with 11 minutes remaining and ended what had looked like one of Aston Martin’s more competitive qualifying sessions of the season — Alonso’s single timed lap was agonisingly close to a Q2 berth. Oliver Bearman was eliminated in 15th after losing his second run to track limits, while Carlos Sainz was the sole Williams representative to reach Q2.