Story highlights
Nico Rosberg on pole for Mexico GP
Fourth straight pole for German
Lewis Hamilton second fastest
Hamilton clinched title last week
Nico Rosberg will be hoping his recent domination of qualifying can be converted into a victory Sunday after taking pole for the Mexico Grand Prix – his fourth in a row on the F1 circuit.
Still smarting from his late mistake at the Circuit of Americas last week, which handed Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton his second straight world title, the German clocked the fastest time of one minute 19.48 seconds Saturday to take top spot on the grid.
Hamilton, who took the lead from Rosberg late in last Sunday’s race in Texas to win the United States Grand Prix and open up an unassailable lead in the championship, was second fastest.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, who is still edging Rosberg for second in the overall standings, was third fastest ahead of the Red Bulls of Russian Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo of Australia.
It was the 20th pole of Rosberg’s career and he will be hoping to gain a measure of revenge on Hamilton for recent defeats and coming of worse in some wheel to wheel rivalry.
“I’ve felt good all weekend and been quick in all of the sessions,” he said.
Hamilton once again made some minor errors in the final session of qualifying and must wait to achieve the milestone of 50 career poles.
“There were a couple of moments when the car felt spectacular but there are few places I could improve,” was the verdict of the three-time world champion.
It is the 13th time in 17 races in which the all-conquering Mercedes duo have shared the front row of the grid, but less than four tenths of a second divided the top three, with Vettel looking to add to his three wins this season.
Valtteri Bottas, his Williams teammate Felipe Massa, Dutch teenager Max Verstappen of Toro Rosso, local hero Sergio Perez and his Force India team-mate Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 10 in qualifying for the inaugural race at the new Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit.
