Carlos Sainz Jr. puts Ferrari on the pole in Mexico City as Perez’s miserable season continues

MEXICO CITY (AP) - Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. won his first pole of the season at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, and Sergio Perez’s miserable Formula 1 season continued Saturday when he failed to advance out of the first round of qualifying at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

"Very happy and great couple of laps, a lot of times around Mexico you always have a feeling you cannot put a lap together and it’s extremely difficult," Sainz said. "Honestly, my two laps were pretty much identical, almost perfect. Very happy because that’s not normally the case around Mexico with how tricky it is."

Three-time defending champion Max Verstappen, who had an engine change Saturday, qualified second for Red Bull. Verstappen is a five-time winner in Mexico City.

Lando Norris of McLaren, who is chasing Verstappen for the driver championship, qualified third and was followed by Charles Leclerc of Ferrari, who won the United States Grand Prix last week.

Mercedes drivers George Russell and Lewis Hamilton qualified fifth and sixth, while Kevin Magnussen of Haas was seventh. Pierre Gasly of Alpine, Alex Albon of Williams and Nico Hülkenberg of Haas rounded out the top 10.

But the focus in Mexico City is on Perez, who is under intense pressure to keep his seat with Red Bull after he signed a contract extension in June.

His poor performance this season - he's winless for the first time since joining the team in 2021, is eighth in the driver standings and has crashed three times - has played a role in McLaren passing Red Bull for the lead in the constructors' championship race.

Perez was visibly annoyed after his poor qualifying effort and said his car is not performing to his liking.

"It's too bad, I have many problems with slowing down the car, many problems,” he said. “Every time I try to break, I don't have the grip, that's the main problem. We see the problem and we know the problem that we have, it doesn't have a quick fix."

He will start 18th on Sunday at a track notoriously difficult to pass and where he crashed on the first lap last year. He said his strategy for the race is recovery.

"Get some points and minimize the damages, it's the best we can do," he said. "It's a long race where anything can happen, we are going to give everything. This is the weekend when I want to do my best, unfortunately we have not been able to achieve it."

Although team principal Christian Horner insisted multiple times this weekend that Perez is under contract at Red Bull for 2025 - with an option for 2026 - there are performance clauses that could cost Perez his seat at the end of the season.

"I think he's summed it up perfectly - it's been a bad year for Checo," Horner said Friday. “We know what he's capable of and we're hoping that we can give him a set-up and the confidence in the car to extract the kind of performances that we know he's very capable of.

"Checo's our driver. He's contracted for 2025. He's competitive. He's hungry. He's not happy with where he currently is. So as a team, we're doing our very best to support him," Horner continued. "Obviously, big weekend for him here, huge support."

But he flopped in qualifying, which bodes poorly for Sunday when he needs to perform. And it is puzzling to Red Bull considering Verstappen qualified second just one day after suffering through massive engine issues.

Red Bull changed the power unit ahead of Saturday’s final practice session and qualifying after the Dutchman complained he had "no power."

To avoid a grid penalty, Red Bull pulled an old engine from it pool. He will likely receive a fresh engine ahead of the next race in Brazil, where he would receive a grid penalty but passing isn’t as difficult as it is in Mexico City.

Verstappen will likely be aggressive Sunday in an attempt to seize the lead away from Sainz at the start. He had a decent final practice after the engine change but isn’t sure what his Red Bull has for the race.

"Yesterday I barely didn’t do any laps, so playing a lot of catch-up," Verstappen said. "I was already under a lot of pressure to have a good qualifying. But very happy to be on the front row."

Oscar Piastri, who was fastest in Saturday’s third practice session, did not advance out of the first round. Yuki Tsunoda, who is one of the many drivers hoping to replace Perez at Red Bull, crashed in the second qualifying round.

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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing