Red Bull’s Max Verstappen thought he had claimed the pole position for the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix but – not so fast – Verstappen was penalized three grid spots after stewards determined he had not slowed down for yellow caution flags after Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas had crashed ahead of him.
“I think we all know what a yellow flag means,” said an indignant Verstappen afterwards. “Do we have to go there? To safety? I think we know what we are doing – otherwise we would not be driving an F1 car. It’s qualifying and, yeah, you go for it.”
Ferrari will now have the front row lockout they had been aiming for as Charles Leclerc is promoted to pole position with teammate Sebastian Vettel alongside him.
The second row will be more interesting now with Verstappen starting alongside defending champion Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes as Verstappen has been faster than Hamilton in most practice and qualifying laps at the Autodromos Hermanos.
After that, comes the third row containing the last potential winners of the race Red Bull’s Alexander Albon and Bottas – but both have issues – with Albon struggling with his first-time F1 starting experience at the track and Bottas’ crash possibly hindering his car’s performance levels.