Team Principal Fred Vasseur has reacted to Lewis Hamilton’s maiden pole position for Ferrari, labelling his performance in Qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix “a fantastic job” that marked the squad’s first triumph over a single lap in 2026.
Hamilton’s brilliant final Q3 lap of 1m 16.514s represented a number of achievements, including his 105th career pole, first Grand Prix pole for the Scuderia, and first at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in a decade.
Ferrari had looked strong throughout the weekend, with some expecting them to cope well with the circuit’s uniquely high altitude, but Mercedes, Red Bull and McLaren all looked to be in the mix for the top spot in Qualifying.
A lock-up for Max Verstappen helped Hamilton to cling onto P1 with a slim margin of 0.009s over Mercedes’ George Russell, leaving Vasseur to praise the Briton’s management of the tense session.
“It’s a good one for Lewis, a good one for the team as it’s also our first pole position this year,” the team boss told F1 TV. “So far, we’ve struggled a little bit more in Qualifying than the race from the beginning of the season, and we were chasing the first pole.
“I’m really pleased also for the team – 1-3 is a good position on track for the start. We know that there is a long run until Turn 1 but we’ll see what can happen tomorrow.”
Elaborating on what made the difference on Hamilton’s lap, he added: “I think it’s a lot about tyre management – to be able to keep the tyres for the last couple of corners where you can make a huge difference in terms of lap time, and to not cook everything before Turn 12. I think Lewis did a fantastic job on this.”
While Ferrari have been known to set the pace during practice before dropping back in Qualifying, having Hamilton take pole ahead of Charles Leclerc in P3 represented what Vasseur called “not a bad result” for the team.
“I think he did a very good first run,” he said of Leclerc. “The last one, he pushed a little bit more. He made one or two mistakes over the lap but he was able to come back with purple in the last sector. Perhaps that P3 is not a bad result, starting on the left hand side.
“[Our race pace] looks okay. The most important [thing] is to be in front at Turn 1 and to have clean air – I think this will be key for the race and result tomorrow.”
