Kimi Antonelli does not need a win to clinch his maiden Formula 1 Drivers’ Championship at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

But securing pole position in Saturday’s qualifying session would put him one step closer to securing the result he needs to clinch that first championship.

Antonelli can clinch the title with a P9 result in Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix, if George Russell wins the race itself, but he could certainly be in the fight for pole position given how Friday’s pair of practice sessions unfolded. Antonelli was second fastest in FP1, and fourth fastest in FP2, with Charles Leclerc leading both hours.

But as we saw last week at the United States Grand Prix, Antonelli does have a habit of turning it on during qualifying. Antonelli was in the middle of the pack during FP1 in Austin, but a thunderous lap at the start of Q3 was enough to secure pole position, and put him on a path to victory.

A similar performance today could put him on a path not just to victory, but to a title.

Mexico City provisional starting grid

Here is the provisional starting grid for the Mexico City Grand Prix, which will be filled in throughout the session:

Mexico City Grand Prix qualifying

Here is how the qualifying hour unfolded. All times listed are in Eastern:

5:05: Alonso has the early benchmark of 1:18.908, but the best teams have yet to post times.

5:01: Green light in Mexico City, and Pérez is one of the first to take to the track.