Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the Mexican Grand Prix as Nico Rosberg delivered on his final lap to secure a front row start.
Having had the advantage over his team-mate all weekend, Hamilton's first lap of 1:18.704 was good enough for pole position, with his second attempt in Q3 leaving him 0.006s shy. Rosberg had been on the back foot throughout the session and started his final run in fourth place, but a good lap promoted him to second, albeit a quarter of a second off his team-mate.
Rosberg's record of qualifying on the front row at every race since Suzuka 2015 was under threat from the Red Bulls, with Max Verstappen having the edge over team-mate Daniel Ricciardo. Ultimately, Verstappen was unable to match his Q2 lap - which was a 1:18.972 - as he qualified third on a 1:19.054, 0.079s ahead of Ricciardo.
Nico Hulkenberg impressed with fifth place on the grid for Force India, pipping the Ferrari pair of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel. All three drivers were covered by 0.051s, with Vettel struggling to improve on his Q2 time having appeared to be a threat for pole.
Valtteri Bottas, Felipe Massa and Carlos Sainz round out the top ten, as 0.8s covered the first eight cars.
Tyre strategy was crucial in the second part of qualifying, with the top ten all starting on the tyres they set their best time on. For Mercedes that meant using the soft compound, with Rosberg needing an extra run to be sure of his progress in fifth place. Verstappen was quickest as Red Bull used supersofts - as did Raikkonen - but Hamilton and Vettel also used softs.
The home fans were left unhappy after Sergio Perez was eliminated in Q2 after a poor final lap, with a mistake at Turn 1 proving costly in a close session. Perez dropped out in 12th behind Fernando Alonso, as team-mate Hulkenberg impressed in sixth place. Jenson Button made it two McLarens out in Q2, but starting from 11th and 13th opens up strategic options for the team.
Kevin Magnussen, Marcus Ericsson and Pascal Wehrlein were the other three drivers knocked out in Q2, with all three having used the best of their tyres to progress from the first part of qualifying.
Jolyon Palmer didn’t take part in qualifying after Renault found a crack in his chassis after FP3, meaning only five further drivers would be eliminated in Q1. Much higher track temperatures meant it was a new challenge for teams, but the order was largely unchanged from final practice. Daniil Kvyat was eliminated early after he needed to return to the pits, with Ericsson jumping up the order to knock him out.
Esteban Gutierrez looked set to progress as a result of a spin right at the end of the session, with the Mexican losing control of his Haas at Turn 9. The resulting yellow flags made it difficult for those behind him to improve, meaning team-mate Romain Grosjean dropped out as the slowest runner behind Esteban Ocon’s Manor and Felipe Nasr in the Sauber. However, Gutierrez was then eliminated by an impressive final lap from Wehrlein as the Manor progressed in 16th place.
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