Bottas takes pole as Mercedes goes 1-2 in Mexico qualifying

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton gave Mercedes its first front row lockout of the season, with Bottas claiming pole over teammate Hamilton in Saturday qualifying for the Mexican Grand Prix.

On a high-altitude track that is supposed to favor Red Bull and season championship leader Max Verstappen, Mercedes muscled its way to a surprise result that should give Hamilton a boost ahead of his title rival at the start of Sunday’s race.

Hamilton trails Verstappen by 12 points in the championship with five races remaining. Verstappen had doubled his points lead with a big win at the U.S. Grand Prix two weeks ago on a track where Hamilton has historically been strong.

Verstappen and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez will start from the second row and Hamilton has a chance to tighten the championship.

Verstappen will start third and Perez fourth after a miserable qualifying session that spoiled Perez’s hopes of starting on the front row in front of his home crowd. Perez’ was forced to bail out of his final lap weaved off the course.

Red Bull expected to put its two cars on the front row — a plausible enough notion that the team has been asked all weekend if there would be team orders for Perez to let Verstappen pass him for a win on Perez’ home track.

Hamilton has won seven championships, including the last four. The British driver would set the F1 career record with an eighth title.

Verstappen is chasing his first championship. The Dutchman won Mexico in 2017 and 2018, and Hamilton won last year. The race was cancelled in 2020 because of the pandemic.

__

More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports