Verstappen reveals Mexico pole fight weakness

Max Verstappen has revealed where he fell short in the fight for pole position ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix.

The Red Bull driver narrowly missed out on the top spot after ending all three practice sessions at the head of the field, leaving him as the favourite for pole position at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez.

However, Verstappen could only manage third in qualifying as Ferrari secured a front-row lockout with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz

Verstappen missed out on pole position by just one-tenth of a second while also being placed under investigation for an alleged impeding incident in the pit lane during the session.

Verstappen rues final sector in Mexico

Verstappen reflected that the final sector was a weak point for Red Bull throughout qualifying.

"It's very difficult as there's very low grip around here because of the altitude, so when you try to push a bit more, it gets away from you," Verstappen explained.

"I think that is what happened a bit in Q3 where we just couldn't put it together, especially in the last sector where we were struggling a bit more than I would have liked.

"Nevertheless, it was still close and it's still a very long race.“

Having won 15 out of the 18 races staged so far this year, Verstappen is hopeful that he can take his 16th win on Sunday to set a new record for the most victories in one season.

“I am,” he said when asked if he was confident over his chances for the race win.

“Of course, I would have liked to start first but we'll have a good slipstream two to one and we'll see what happens.”