Mexico City Grand Prix at 1am PKT Monday: Hamilton on first Ferrari pole, Antonelli needs only 9th for the title

The Mexico City Grand Prix starts at 1:00am Pakistan time on Monday 2 November (2pm Sunday in Mexico City), and Kimi Antonelli needs only a ninth-place finish to become Formula One world champion. Lewis Hamilton starts from pole, his first for Ferrari in a full Grand Prix, Reuters reported via Al Jazeera.

Mexico City Grand Prix time in Pakistan

Formula 1's own schedule gives the 2pm local start. Mexico City does not use daylight saving, so it is 11 hours behind Pakistan.

Hamilton's first Ferrari pole

Hamilton took pole at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in 1:16.514, the 105th pole of his career and his first at a regular Grand Prix since Hungary in July 2023, a wait of 1,197 days. At 41 he is the oldest pole-sitter since Mario Andretti, aged 42, at Monza in 1982.

"It has been such a long time coming," Hamilton told his team on the radio. He said it took him back to watching Michael Schumacher take poles for Ferrari.

Qualifying order, top 10

Lawson was disqualified from qualifying for a technical breach and sent to the back, so Arvid Lindblad starts eighth. Oscar Piastri was knocked out in Q2 and starts 13th. Sergio Perez, in his 300th Grand Prix in front of his home crowd, and his Cadillac teammate Valtteri Bottas start on the back row. Japan's Ryo Hirakawa makes his race debut for Haas at 32, in place of the dropped Esteban Ocon.

What Antonelli needs

Antonelli, 20, leads his Mercedes teammate Russell by 123 points with only 100 left after this weekend, so the title is a matter of when. A ninth-place finish on Sunday is enough to make him Formula One's youngest champion and Italy's first since 1953. Russell or Hamilton would have to win the race to keep the decision waiting another week, and even that only works if Antonelli scores too little.

"It was a poor lap, too many mistakes," Antonelli said after qualifying fifth. "I was a bit tense, I am not going to lie."

Watching from Pakistan

The race runs after midnight here, so set an alarm for about 12:45am. We will update our sport pages with the result on Monday morning. The rest of the weekend's results, from cricket to football, are on our sports news page.