RICCIARDO BEAT VERSTAPPEN FOR POLE IN MEXICO

Daniel Ricciardo put in a superb final flying lap to claim pole position for the Mexican Grand Prix, beating team-mate Max Verstappen by just two hundredths of a second at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez as Red Bull Racing claimed its first front-row lockout in five years.

Verstappen had looked well place to claim his first career pole position after taking provisional top spot in the first runs of Q3, but on the drivers’ final flyer Ricciardo found another gear and jumped from fourth after the first runs to pole position, with a time of 1:14.759. Unable to find an improvement, Verstappen was forced to settle for the back of the front row for tomorrow’s race.

It will be the first all-Red Bull front of the hybrid turbo era, with the team’s last qualifying one-two being scored at the 2013 United States Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton claimed third place on the grid, and crucially for his bid to take a fifth world championship crown tomorrow, the Briton is one place further up the gird than title rival Sebastian Vettel.

Mexican Grand Prix – Qualifying
P.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME	GAP
1.	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull	1:14.759
2.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:14.785	+ 0.026
3.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	1:14.894	+ 0.135
4.	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:14.970	+ 0.211
5.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG	1:15.160	+ 0.401
6.	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:15.330	+ 0.571
7.	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1:15.827	+ 1.068
8.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Renault	1:16.084	+ 1.325
9.	Charles Leclerc	Sauber	1:16.189	+ 1.430
10.	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber	1:16.515	+ 1.754
Q2 Fastest Time: Max Verstappen - 1:15.640
11.	Esteban Ocon	Force India	1:16.844	+ 1.204
12.	Fernando Alonso	McLaren	1:16.871	+ 1.231
13.	Sergio Perez	Force India	1:17.167	+ 1.527
14.	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso	1:17.184	+ 1.544
15.	Pierre Gasly*	Toro Rosso	/	/
Q1  Fastest Time: Valtteri Bottas - 1:15.580
16.	Romain Grosjean	Haas	1:16.911	+ 1.331
17.	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren	1:16.966	+ 1.386
18.	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	1:17.599	+ 2.019
19.	Lance Stroll	Williams	1:17.689	+ 2.109
20.	Sergey Sirotkin	Williams	1:17.886	+ 2.306
107% time: 1:20.870
* penalty - 20 grid places HYBRID ERA - HERMANOS RODRIGUEZ 2015 Nico Rosberg - Mercedes AMG - 1:19.480 2016 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:18.704 2017 Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari - 1:16.488 2018 Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull - 1:14.759 @MkFormula1 - Republic of Macedonia