UPDATE Race Weekends
2026 retrospective: Hamilton edges Russell by 0.009s for Mexico pole
Hamilton took his first Ferrari pole in Mexico City. The final grid placed Antonelli fourth after Verstappen’s penalty, while Lawson was sent to the pit lane.
Reporting credit: Formula 1 · Formula 1 · Formula 1 · FIA · Formula 1
2026 retrospective — Lewis Hamilton delivered a 1:16.514 lap in Mexico City qualifying on 31 October to claim his first pole position for Ferrari. George Russell finished just 0.009 seconds behind, with Charles Leclerc third on 1:16.633. The result put both Ferraris in the first three places, but Mercedes had come within nine thousandths of taking the front spot.
Formula 1’s session report describes a late reversal at the front: Russell moved to provisional pole before Hamilton narrowly displaced him. It was Hamilton’s 105th career pole. His Ferrari team-mate had also held the leading time during Q3, giving the team two contenders in the decisive phase.
The qualifying order and the race grid
The final F1 qualifying results list Max Verstappen fourth on 1:16.692 and Kimi Antonelli fifth on 1:16.707. Those positions were reversed on the starting grid: Verstappen’s one-place penalty for a collision in FP2 promoted Antonelli to fourth. Norris started sixth, followed by Hadjar, Lindblad, Gasly and Hulkenberg.
Lawson was disqualified from qualifying for a technical breach. The official starting-grid notes also record his FP2 collision penalty and a pit-lane start after new power-unit components and set-up changes under parc ferme. Bottas received a back-of-grid penalty for multiple new power-unit components. These later decisions mean the initial session report does not represent the definitive starting order.
What the numbers show
UPDATE FORMULA analysis: the leading five qualifying times were covered by 0.193 seconds. That narrow spread makes the distinction between lap-time performance and grid penalties particularly important when revisiting the weekend. Ferrari won the one-lap contest, while Antonelli gained a starting position through the application of a penalty, rather than by setting the fourth-fastest Q3 lap.
This is a retrospective of Saturday’s qualifying, not a new race result. Formula 1’s official qualifying highlights are linked in the sources as an external video.
Correction, 5 November 2026: the source-date metadata has been adjusted to the session’s UTC start time so the displayed date correctly reads 31 October. The qualifying times and grid positions are unchanged.
