2021 Mexican Grand Prix - Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Nov 05 - 07

[darkpino]

Even without the TSU-PER incident i dont think VER was on a pole lap as he himself said in the interview...He was something lile 0.270 off the first sector alone jumping on kerbs and sliding around.RB just didnt have the balance all of a sudden,but oh man what a turn of events.

.066, not even close to .270

[Hammerfist]

Hamilton got beat by Bottas, Verstappen didn't get beat by Perez. I wonder what cracks are you on about, unless you mean literal cracks on rear wing.

With all due respect to the man, Perez isn't in Bottas' league.

In qualifying he is not, for sure. But also to keep in mind that Bottas' new engine is possibly running a more agressive mode than Hamiton. He was always faster in S1 even while giving a tow. He could be a nightmare for the Redbulls in the upcoming races.

[cplchanb]

I knew Merc would have a shot at pole the moment HAM had the radio message in FP3.

Almost identical to Silverstone. Merc hiding pace.

So much for the high-altitude tracks being bogey circuits for Merc.

Do you have the transcript of the transmission? what was the timestamp on the broadcast?

[AeroDynamic]

Wow seems like things are choking up in the RB camp, 4 cars / team mates tripping over eachother.

some of the reactions here are hysterical accusing the best car. It changes track to track, condition to condition, and sometimes things go wrong.


Seems like Valterri went with a safer set up that Mercedes opt for while his team mate was trying various things and couldn’t settle on one competitive set up. But then again Valterri likes these types of corners.

[F1NAC]

Verstappen has a tow starting 3rd, the car has more pace than the Mercedes so the race can still be won on strategy.

not if Merc manages to stay in front. But then again IF there is a battle between ver and bot, it won't be long as shown in previous races.

[dans79]

Red bull went backwards with increase of track temp. They only beat the alpha turi by a tenth so clearly this is the case. Merc stayed pretty much where they were relative to the rest of the grid. Just got to use a brain and look at the lap times to see what happened.

After fp3 when I mentioned that needing 2 cooldown laps meant red Bull was working the tires really hard I got a bunch of grief! Look what happened when the track temperature went up, they started sliding, most likely because they were overheating the tires.

[Juzh]

This is Mercs race to lose

It's a long run to T1 and Max can benefit from a double tow from the Mercs. Perez and Gasly won't attack him so he can concentrate on getting close the Lewis's gearbox on the straight.

Of course, if Lewis has a bad start from P2, Max could be P2 by T1.

All still to play for.

In clean air Bottas had 10 kmh advantage over Verstappen on main straight and this will help him a lot down to T1. Basically it means as soon as VER pulls out of slipstream he's at best staying level, but more likely falling behind a car length. Unless he can take inside line there's no chance he's gonna be close enough to go around the outside of Bottas like he did back in 2017 against Vettel.
This assumes Hamilton has a bad start or something like that.

[Vaexa]

It's incredible how people are commenting on quali despite not watching it. That, or most people just wilfully ignore the fact Verstappen lifted when he encountered the Tsunoda-Perez jumble to avoid a potential yellow flag penalty.

[AeroDynamic]

It's incredible how people are commenting on quali despite not watching it. That, or most people just wilfully ignore the fact Verstappen lifted when he encountered the Tsunoda-Perez jumble to avoid a potential yellow flag penalty.

Yep. He aborted the lap. I’m not sure he would’ve got pole or not, but he would’ve been closer

[ringo]

Yes i think that's their strategy. Run Bottas engine on max power for the remaining races and apply pressure to redbull.
I dont think Hamilton expected to get pole knowing where Bottas engine mode would be. Hence why it can be refuted that he was under any pressure. The pressure is on for Redbull.
They have a car riding cubs like a bucking bronco and shaking itself to pieces.
But all is not lost. The car had very good runs on the yellow tyres. Max knows he can make up lost ground. The frustration may come from trying to overtake.
I would not be suprised if he dive bombs Hamilton or Bottas.
But Hamilton needs to be ahead of Bottas and Totto needs to let Bottas know that he should fight Max hard and give him no quarter. Any dive bombs or pass attempts should be met with a closing wedge.

[pantherxxx]

Verstappen will cruise to victory tomorrow, mark my words. Red Bull still has better race pace, and Max will get double tow in the first straight line.

[Mattyw]

Also I bet the dirty side of the grid is super dirty - assume a poor ham start and tuck in behind bot

[Juzh]

...as per my previous post, NEVER believe anything coming out of Ham's mouth. He and Toto are consummate mind gamers.

Super sandbag, just like the rest of the season...

And more proof the Merc is the better car.

Gasly was only a tenth off the bulls, come on Bulls underperformed, end off. Max made a mistake on his first run, and then his second was ruined by Tsu and Perez going off. Maybe it is your word that shouldn't be taken as gospel.

Not saying Gasly's performance wasn't great, but he got a really big help from Tsunoda on both his Q3 laps. He gave him perfect slipstream for full main straight, worth around 10 kmh extra speed on the top end.

[AeroDynamic]

Can someone breakdown how the race pace looks for the cars tomorrow?

[RZS10]

Interesting result ... kinda unexpected.