Ricciardo on pole as leader Hamilton must settle for third

Daniel Ricciardo seized only the third pole position of his career last night, and his first outside Monaco, with an exhilarating final flying lap to edge out Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen by just 26 thousandths of a second.

Lewis Hamilton, who needs only to finish in the top seven in today’s Mexican Grand Prix to wrap up his fifth world title, starts third. Memories of last year’s chaotic first few corners at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez will be in Hamilton’s mind on the halfmile rundown to Turn One. The two Red Bull drivers have taken each other out once before this season, in Baku, and the champion-in-waiting is wary of avoiding another tangle between them as he chases his moment of history.

“I’ve been racing a long time,” he said. “It’s very rare that I make rash decisions in those scenarios.”

With Sebastian Vettel starting from fourth and needing a victory to stand any chance of prolonging the title scrap with Hamilton – who is 70 points clear with just 75 left to fight for – a fifth championship for the Briton, to take him level with Juan Manuel Fangio and two behind Michael Schumacher, looks all but assured.

For Ricciardo, this was a moment to relish. While the Australian has decided to leave Red Bull at the end of the year to join Renault, the satisfaction of vanquishing Verstappen, who stood to be the youngest pole-sitter in F1 history until the dramatic finale, was writ large across his grinning face. “I’m holding a lot of emotion in,” smiled Ricciardo. “I’ve got to save energy for the race.”