2026 MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX – QUALIFYING REPORT
October 31, 2026 — Mexico City, Mexico — The Cadillac Formula 1® Team qualified P21 and P22 with Checo Pérez and Valtteri Bottas, respectively, for tomorrow’s Mexico City Grand Prix.
Both drivers completed three flying laps in a session interrupted by a red flag after Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso stopped at Turn 13. With Bottas carrying a 50-grid place penalty into tomorrow’s race, the Finnish driver supported teammate Perez with multiple tows to help maximize the home favorite’s qualifying performance.
With overtaking difficult and cars being pushed to the limit at the circuit’s high altitude, the team will target a strong start and look to stay in contention for opportunities ahead in the 71-lap Grand Prix that begins at 3 p.m. local time tomorrow.
Checo Pérez:
Qualified: P21 Q1: 1:19.105
“The conditions were changing quite a lot, but I think we managed them reasonably well. Missing FP3 was far from ideal, as we couldn’t test the changes we made to the car before qualifying. Despite that, I’m pleased with my lap and I think we got the most out of what we had today. Thanks to Valtteri for the tows too, it drew us closer and almost gave us a shot at out qualifying some of the cars ahead.
“Hopefully, we can get a good start tomorrow and fight with the cars ahead. Overtaking is very difficult here, so track position will be key. If we can stay in the mix and keep some faster cars behind us, that would be a positive result.”
Valtteri Bottas:
Qualified: P22 Q1: 1:19.852
“A straightforward qualifying session for us today with everything going to plan. Obviously, I have the 50-grid place penalty for tomorrow’s race so the plan today was to try and help give Checo the best shot at a lap time. I gave him a tow on the last two runs and I think he gained slightly from it which is why he was pretty close to the cars ahead, but sadly not enough to gain a position. At least we tried as a team.
“Looking ahead to tomorrow’s race, everything we've done on my side this weekend has been to prioritize the setup for the race. We’ve done minimal performance running and instead focused on long runs, so let's hope we're going to be a bit closer and in the mix tomorrow.”
Marcin Budkowski, Team Principal
“More tricks than treats for us today. We got off to a rough start with Checo when we had to change his power unit during FP3 which cost him the whole session. A big thank you to the team in the garage for getting him back out in time for Qualifying. This is such a tough track for these cars so losing a lot of data and being unable to validate the setup changes going into Qualifying is painful.
“As Valtteri has a grid penalty tomorrow for running a new PU following his retirement in Austin, he compromised his Qualifying session to help Checo, so thanks to him for being such a great team player. It is going to be another tough race day tomorrow, but we know that the passionate Mexican fans will lift our spirits and we will give it everything to repay the support.”