Max Verstappen believes the start of the race will be of greater importance than usual in his bid for the Mexican GP victory. The Red Bull driver secured his seventh Pole Position of the season at the Hermanos Rodríguez Circuit, ahead of the revitalised Mercedes duo of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. Speaking after the hotly contested qualifying hour, Verstappen highlighted the long run to Turn 1 as a key factor in his victory chances. "It was a good qualifying, I think it was a close one," Verstappen told media. "I think after FP3 we made a few adjustments on the car got into a better rhythm, and to be on pole here is of course amazing. "Of course, it's a very long run to Turn 1, so we do need a good start. Anyway, I think we have a quick car, and that's, of course, what's most important."
Verstappen: Mercedes and Perez in the fight
The Mexican Grand Prix has all the ingredients to be one of the closest races of the season, with Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari all showing glimpses of pace this weekend. Verstappen continued to highlight the strong race pace of the Mercedes driver, and teammate Perez. "Checo [Perez] will be there tomorrow. I'm sure we have a quick race car. So, I hope it will be quite a fun race with a lot of action," added Verstappen. "Yeah, I think it will be close in the race. Normally they [Mercedes] have very good race pace as well. So, it depends on what you can do with this strategy, but we'll look into that tonight."
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