Hamilton credits changed approach for maiden Ferrari pole in Mexico

By 0.009 seconds, Lewis Hamilton beat former Mercedes team-mate George Russell to his first pole for Ferrari at the Mexico Grand Prix. Hamilton said the result was helped by a different approach to the weekend: he arrived at the circuit on Wednesday, earlier than he normally does, to review Ferrari’s recent races and identify where it could improve.

He said he and Ferrari made a small change to the way they worked. At Austin the previous weekend, the team had topped all three practice sessions but qualified fourth and fifth.

Hamilton said the review in Mexico covered wind direction, tyres and track temperatures falling through the session, plus what those conditions meant for the settings needed to get the tyres working. He described the tyres’ operating window as narrow and said they overheat outside it.

He said he got the tyres into the perfect window on his out-lap; after Turns 1, 2 and 3, the lap felt smooth, and he did not think he lost time. The pole was Hamilton’s 105th in Formula 1 and his first since the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix.