Lewis Hamilton was third fastest after qualifying for the 2022 Mexico City Grand Prix, but claims there was still performance in his W13 which he didn’t unlock.
Hamilton did not have a smooth qualifying as his first hot lap in Q3 was deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 2, so he had to make it work with one shot only, his final one which yielded P3.
However, Hamilton was buoyed up by the improved form of the Silver Arrows around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, and credited the hard work his team put in.
“I’m proud of the team – this is the best qualifying we’ve had all year,” Hamilton said. “It just shows that you can never give up, and that perseverance is the way forward, so a big thank you to everybody here and back at the factory.
“In terms of the laps, they were pretty closely matched, but obviously when the first one is deleted, you have to make sure the second is completely clean,” he pointed out.
“There was still more performance in it but it’s great to be so close to the Red Bull cars after we have been chasing them each weekend this year. So, we will just keep pushing, and I’m pretty happy starting from P3.
“It’s a long way down to Turn One,” the seven-time Formula 1 Champion maintained.
Q1: P1
Q2: P1
Q3: P10 (so far)Hamilton loses his first Q3 time for missing the apex at Turn 2#MexicoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/6465pxXeys
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 29, 2022
An interesting statement came from Hamilton when asked in the post qualifying press conference whether he can explain how his W13 became alive in Mexico; he responded: “I can’t. Simple as that.”
The gap to Verstappen was bigger than Mercedes hoped
Andrew Shovlin, Mercedes’ trackside Engineering Director reflected: “After the final practice this morning it looked like we might be in the fight for pole; in the end, the gap at the end to Max was a bit bigger than we had hoped for.
“We were very close on pace to him into the final sector but couldn’t quite match him there in the hotter afternoon conditions,” he said referring to George Russell’s qualifying efforts, that put the young Briton second on Sunday’s grid.
“Overall, though, we can take encouragement from the way the car is working with the recent updates. Our long runs had looked competitive yesterday and we do tend to race a bit better than we qualify, so there is still everything to play for tomorrow.
“We’re lacking a little bit of a straightline speed to the Red Bulls so having both lined up behind Max may be no bad thing,” Shovlin concluded.
What a thrilling qualifying at the #MexicoGP! ??
It‘s P2 for George and P3 for Lewis! Great job, team! ??#WeLivePerformance #WorldsFastestFamily pic.twitter.com/6RjRfLSg0M— Mercedes-AMG Motorsport (@amgmotorsport) October 29, 2022