Hamilton Takes First Ferrari Pole in Mexico with Record-Extending 105th Pole

Lewis Hamilton has taken his first pole position for Ferrari at the Mexico City Grand Prix. The seven-time world champion set the fastest time in Saturday's qualifying session to earn the right to start Sunday's main race at the front of the grid.

Hamilton's pole time at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was one minute 16.514 seconds. It was the record-extending 105th pole position of his career.

Although he has had two sprint poles since joining Ferrari last year, this was his first pole at a regular grand prix for the team. His previous grand prix pole was in Hungary in July 2023, when he was at Mercedes — a wait of 1,197 days.

Speaking over team radio after qualifying, Hamilton said the moment had been a long time coming. He thanked the team for their hard work and said he was grateful to be able to reward them with a pole.

At the age of 41, Hamilton has become the oldest pole-sitter since American Mario Andretti, at 42, at Monza in Italy in 1982. Michael Schumacher's first pole for Ferrari came at the 1996 San Marino Grand Prix, and Schumacher went on to win five titles with Ferrari from 2000 to 2004. Hamilton said the pole was special because it took him back to watching Schumacher take poles and wins at Ferrari.

Mercedes driver George Russell was second fastest. He had held provisional pole before Hamilton beat his time by just 0.009 seconds. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was third, 0.119 seconds off the pole pace.

Much of the attention was on Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli. He was fifth fastest in qualifying but will start fourth because Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who was fourth fastest, is taking a grid drop. Antonelli needs only a ninth-place finish on Sunday to become champion; the 20-year-old would be Italy's first champion since 1953.

Antonelli admitted he struggled to get a good feeling from the tyres in the final part of qualifying, lacked confidence and felt tense. He said it was a poor lap with too many mistakes, and that the weekend had not been the easiest.

Russell, Antonelli's closest rival and teammate, is 123 points behind him, with only 100 points left to be won after this weekend. Either Hamilton or Russell would therefore have to win the race to keep Antonelli waiting another week for the title.

Reigning champion Lando Norris of McLaren, last year's winner in Mexico, qualified sixth, with Red Bull's Isack Hadjar seventh. Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson was eighth fastest but had a one-place grid drop for a clash with Verstappen in Friday practice; he was then disqualified from the session for a technical breach and sent to the back of the grid. His teammate Arvid Lindblad will therefore start eighth, Alpine's Pierre Gasly ninth and Audi's Nico Hulkenberg 10th. Lawson said he went to see Verstappen in the morning to apologise.

Norris was fastest in the second phase of qualifying, while his teammate Oscar Piastri was knocked out in 13th place and complained of a lack of rear grip. In the first session, Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso stopped with a suspected water pressure issue in the power unit. Japan's Ryo Hirakawa qualified 19th for Haas on his Formula One race debut at the age of 32, standing in for Esteban Ocon, who was dropped by the team for undisclosed reasons not related to illness. Mexican Sergio Perez, preparing for his 300th grand prix in front of his home crowd, and his Cadillac teammate Valtteri Bottas filled the back row.