While his second run was not enough to beat pole-sitter Carlos Sainz, Verstappen will still start on the front row after claiming P2.
When asked after the session if the deletion of his first lap had put a lot of pressure on his later attempt, the world champion responded: “Yeah, quite a lot.
HIGHLIGHTS: Watch the action from qualifying in Mexico as Sainz storms to pole after shock Q1 exits for Perez and Piastri
“Naturally yesterday I barely did any laps. We’re playing a lot of catch-up. FP3 was not very good, so I was already under a lot of pressure to have a good qualifying, and then of course my lap time got taken away, so it added a little bit more pressure.
“But I’m very happy to be on the front row – I honestly didn’t expect that to be possible.”
