F1 Mexican GP: Leading start, Max Verstappen eyeing 14th win of the season

JAKARTA - World champion Max Verstappen took the pole position at the Mexican Grand Prix after defeating Mercedes duo George Russell and Lewis Hamilton in qualifying on Saturday local time.

Hamilton led Q1 and repeated his fastest lap in Q2, but his efforts in Q3 were blocked by the track limit, allowing Verstappen to hold a temporary pole over Russell.

On his last lap, Verstappen was able to improve his lap again to 1 minute 17.775 seconds to beat Russell who was 0.304 seconds adrift in second place. Hamilton secured P3 0.005 seconds behind his team-mate, according to the official Formula 1 website.

Meanwhile, home hero Sergio Perez will start at P4, 0.353 seconds ahead of his teammates and Carlos Sainz secures P5 for Ferrari.

"This is a good qualifier", said Verstappen, who is eyeing his 14th win in a season, as quoted by Antara.

"It was very tight, but we made some adjustments to the car and got a better rhythm so to be on pole here is, of course, incredible.

"The road to the first corner is very long, so we have to start well, but I think we have a fast car and that's the most important thing. The spirit of the fans here is amazing, in the stadium, it's really nice to ride here."

Alfa Romeo's Valtteri Bottas finished P6 and separated the two Ferraris as Charles Leclerc, who crashed in Friday's training session, will start his attack from P7 ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris and two-time world champion Fernando Alonso and his Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon.

Russell was very disappointed with the result that day after he went wide while trying to improve his lap time.

"The team deserved better today", said Russell. "They have made an amazing car this weekend and it felt like our pole but I did a bad lap in the end."

Hamilton, on the other hand, was quite pleased with the qualifying result which he considered "the best of the season" for Mercedes.

"It shows that persistence and unyielding payoff. I'm quite happy with this position, it's a long road to corner one."