Mexican GP: Bottas takes spotlight from Hamilton, Verstappen

All eyes are on the championship battle between Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton and Red Bull Racing star Max Verstappen this weekend at the Mexican Grand Prix. However, it was Valtteri Bottas who stole the spotlight on Saturday, as he trumped both championship contenders to take the pole position with his Mercedes.

Bottas had been the stronger of the two Mercedes cars throughout the weekend so far, topping the first practice session on Friday. However, Verstappen outpaced both Mercedes cars in FP2, leading Hamilton to believe that the Red Bulls are going to be much quicker over the weekend.

The same was true on FP3, with hometown hero Sergio Perez leading the way ahead of his Red Bull teammate. However, the tide shifted again when it mattered on Saturday, with the Mercedes cars suddenly finding pace in the later half of qualifying. Q1 started with Verstappen over half a second ahead, but that advantage quickly disappeared over the course of the afternoon.

The Mercedes cars started to find pace in Q2 and Q3, but Verstappen still had a strong chance until Yuki Tsunoda went off in front of him and teammate Perez late into Q3. Both Red Bulls had to back off, preventing them from trying to do one better over the times set by the Mercedes drivers.

Bottas eventually took pole and Hamilton helped him lock-out an all-Mercedes front row. It's a disappointing result for championship leader Max Verstappen, who could only get his Red Bull to third place despite looking strong in the free practice sessions.

This means that Hamilton has a strong chance of chipping away at Verstappen's narrow 12-point advantage in the Drivers' Championship standings. The championship is tight, and may prove to be even tighter after the Mexican Grand Prix concludes on Sunday.

The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is known to be a Red Bull stronghold, but the Mercedes cars clearly found some way to turn things to their advantage.

Hamilton earlier blamed a lack of downforce for their pace deficit but it seems the Mercedes team found a solution overnight.

Apart from the Mercedes and Red Bull cars that have the two front rows locked out, Pierre Gasly made a notable performance in qualifying, taking his AlphaTauri up to 5th place as the best among the rest.

The two Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were 6th and 8th, split by Daniel Ricciardo's McLaren. The Australian will be happy to outqualify teammate Lando Norris, who could only manage tenth.

Yuki Tsunoda made it up to 9th, in what has been a good session for the AlphaTauri team overall.

Elsewhere, Lance Stroll had a massive crash in the first session, but he is thankfully unhurt according to a statement from Aston Martin.