Verstappen penalty gifts Leclerc pole

MEXICO CITY: Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was handed pole position for this morning’s Mexican Grand Prix after stewards demoted Max Verstappen for failing to slow for yellow warning flags in qualifying yesterday.

The Red Bull driver’s three place drop to fourth also lifted Sebastian Vettel to an allFerrari front row and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton to third, boosting the Briton’s chances of sealing his sixth world championship today.

Since the highaltitude race returned to the calendar in 2015, every winner has started on the front row.

‘‘I think it’s clear for everyone that when there’s a yellow flag you need to slow down . . . I think it’s clear for every driver. It’s the basics,’’ Leclerc had said after qualifying second on the track.

The qualifying session had ended in drama after Hamilton’s teammate, Valtteri Bottas, crashed heavily at the last corner, strewing the track with debris.

Verstappen, winner of the past two Mexican Grands Prix, had sounded defiant in a postqualifying news conference when he admitted he had not slowed for the flags warning of the accident.

‘‘I was aware that Valtteri crashed,’’ the 22yearold Dutchman said.

Asked whether he had backed off, Verstappen replied: ‘‘Didn’t really look like it, did it? No.’’

Hamilton can wrap up the championship today with three races to spare if he finishes on the podium at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez and scores 14 points more than Bottas.

Bottas, the only driver with a mathematical chance of denying Hamilton the title, qualified sixth but with questions about possible grid penalties.

He said the team was ‘‘pretty optimistic’’ the car could be rebuilt without incurring any drop.

The Finn, 64 points behind Hamilton, lost control into the last Peraltada corner and careered along the wall at speed before slamming into the end of the energyabsorbing Tecpro barrier. — Reuters