Logan Sargeant and Williams have been penalised for incidents during qualifying for Formula 1’s Mexico City Grand Prix, with all other drivers cleared.

Sargeant was issued a 10-place grid penalty after he was judged to have overtaken Yuki Tsunoda during a yellow flag period caused by a spinning Fernando Alonso.

Sargeant did not set a lap time during qualifying and was consequently set to start from last place anyway, effectively nullifying the sanction.

However he was handed two penalty points for the incident, bringing his rolling 12-month total up to six, which is halfway to a race suspension.

Williams was also penalised, in the form of a €20,000 fine, of which €10,000 is suspended, after the team conceded that it left its jack unattended in the pit box.

The piece of equipment was struck by AlphaTauri’s Tsunoda as he exited the garage.

Elsewhere Max Verstappen, George Russell and Fernando Alonso were all cleared after being investigated for impeding at pit exit.

There were separate incidents in which drivers were slow to leave the pit lane during the session.

“The Stewards consider that the entire set of incidents occurred as a direct result of the implementation of the minimum lap time between SC2 and SC1 which is designed (correctly so, in our view) to avoid dangerous backing-up of cars on the circuit during qualification,” read the stewards’ report.

“We note that there are contrary requirements on drivers in that they must respect the minimum time, they are attempting to create manageable gaps to cars in front, yet they are also required to avoid unnecessarily stopping at the pit exit or driving unnecessarily slowly.

“It was also particularly noted that the Race Director accepted that these contrary requirements exist. All parties including the Stewards are firmly of the view that it is better to have the potential of cars backing-up in the pit lane or at the pit exit, instead of the potentially dangerous situation of large speed differences on track.”

It was also outlined that a more beneficial long-term solution should be sought.

Lewis Hamilton was also cleared of allegedly failing to slow for yellow flags during Q1.

Daniel Ricciardo revelled in taking his and AlphaTauri’s best qualifying result of 2023 after scoring a standout fourth position in Mexico City.

Ricciardo was competitive throughout the three-stage session at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez and stunned by scoring fourth place.

While Ricciardo was assisted in Q1 and Q2 by penalised team-mate Yuki Tsunoda providing a slipstream, Ricciardo was more competitive through the second and third sectors, and managed without a tow in Q3.

“Already kind of before the weekend I was feeling a little bit hungry, let’s say? In a positive way, like a chip on my shoulder,” he said.

“And from Lap 1 yesterday, I felt good. Really all weekend I think we were a well inside the top 10 car. I think this morning, we were still there in P9. But obviously I was not happy with my lap this morning. I knew that we could show more than that.

“Q1, Q2, Yuki was great and gave us a tow just to make sure that we got into Q3. But then Q3, we didn’t have a tow and we still showed really good pace. Probably the coolest thing about today was it wasn’t ah OK, they did it but they gained a couple of tenths from a tow. We had raw pace.”

Ricciardo wound up only 0.216s away from pole-sitter Charles Leclerc.

“Obviously P4 is amazing,” he said. “But then when you look at pole, it was two-tenths, it’s not like Max [Verstappen] or someone was seven or eight-tenths down the road. So the gap is just as cool as the position, if you know what I mean.

“We’re really there, and who knows what it means for tomorrow? I don’t feel today is a fluke. I really feel like we had strong pace. I felt with a perfect lap, going through it in my head last night, I thought maybe today we could be P6, P7 if everything goes well. I definitely had confidence we weren’t just a P10 car. But P4 is pretty cool.”

Lewis Hamilton described his Mercedes W14 as “a bit of a nightmare to drive” after qualifying in sixth place for Formula 1’s Mexico City Grand Prix.

Mercedes’ performance fluctuated throughout qualifying, with Hamilton a low-key seventh in Q1, before leading the way at the conclusion of Q2.

But Hamilton took only sixth at the end of Q3, while team-mate George Russell was further back in eighth position.

“I’ve been struggling all weekend with the car and it has been a bit of a nightmare to drive,” said Hamilton.

“We’ve had to try and put the performance together piece by piece, and we made good changes going into qualifying so that I was much happier with the car.

“Q1 and Q2 weren’t looking too bad – especially the second run in Q2. But the car is just really peaky – sometimes it’s in the window, sometimes not. And I couldn’t squeeze anything more out of it on that final lap.

“The race is definitely going to be a challenge: we will be overheating the tyres and the brakes, so it won’t be easy to battle the cars around us. I don’t really know what kind of race to expect but it’s going to be on a knife edge.”

Russell echoed Hamilton’s view and added that “we showed signs of strong pace at points, but we didn’t deliver when it counted.

“We lacked consistency today – some runs we were strong, others not, so it was a confusing picture. On the final run, we had one set of new tyres and tried something different on the out lap, and it didn’t work and the tyres weren’t in the window.”

World Champion Max Verstappen set the pace during the opening practice session for Formula 1’s Mexico City Grand Prix.

Verstappen posted a time of 1:19.718s on Soft tyres in a session which featured Pirelli’s 2024 prototype tyres as well as five Formula 2 drivers.

Verstappen’s time was just 0.095s clear of Williams’ Alex Albon, who displayed impressive pace in the FW45, with home hero Sergio Perez third overall.

McLaren’s Lando Norris was fourth while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc placed fifth.

Norris’ McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri was sixth-quickest on the prototype 2024-spec Medium, the fastest driver not to clock his best time on Softs.

Carlos Sainz, who missed Thursday’s media activities after falling unwell, suffered an early hydraulic problem but recovered to finish seventh.

AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo was eighth, with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll rounding out the top 10.

Half of the grid used FP1 in Mexico City to run a young driver, as required twice per team through the course of a season.

Frederik Vesti (Mercedes), Oliver Bearman (Haas) and Isack Hadjar (AlphaTauri) all made their respective weekend debuts while Jack Doohan (Alpine) and Théo Pourchaire (Alfa Romeo) returned after also running in 2022.

Ferrari junior Bearman was the fastest of the quintet, in 15th place, with Hadjar 17th, Alpine reserve Doohan 18th, and Mercedes’ Vesti 19th.

Formula 2 title leader Pourchaire suffered from repeated brake pedal issues and was able to complete only four installation laps.

Second practice for the Mexico City Grand Prix is scheduled for 16:00 local time

AlphaTauri driver Yuki Tsunoda is set to start Formula 1’s Mexico City Grand Prix from the back of the grid after taking a fresh power unit.

The FIA confirmed on Friday that Tsunoda has taken on a new version of each of the six components that comprise the power unit.

As a consequence he is set to start Sunday’s race from last position.

AlphaTauri holds last in the Constructors’ Championship but closed to within two points of Haas after Tsunoda registered its best finish of the campaign in Austin.

Tsunoda scored eighth place – following the disqualifications of Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc – and also picked up a bonus point for setting the fastest lap.

Tsunoda did not take part in the opening practice session in Mexico City after AlphaTauri elected to put Isack Hadjar in the AT04 to fulfil one of its two rookie sessions.

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc have been excluded from Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix after their respective planks did not comply with the regulations.

Hamilton had finished the race in second, just two seconds behind winner Max Verstappen, while pole starter Charles Leclerc classified sixth.

Post-race checks determined that Hamilton’s W14 and Leclerc’s SF-23 did not comply with the regulations governing plank wear.

“During the hearing the team acknowledged that the measurement performed by the FIA Technical Team was correct and stated that the high wear on the skid pads was probably a result of the unique combination of the bumpy track and the Sprint race schedule that minimized the time to set up and check the car before the race,” read the statement for both drivers.

“The Stewards note that the onus is on the competitor to ensure that the car is in compliance with the regulations at all times during an event.”

Lando Norris has consequently been promoted to second with Carlos Sainz taking home third.

Elsewhere Sergio Perez moves up to fourth, ahead of Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell, with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll now sixth and seventh respectively.

AlphaTauri leaves with a haul of five points following Yuki Tsunoda’s promotion to eighth, having also set the fastest lap, while Williams takes its first double points in over two years.

Alexander Albon slots into ninth while Logan Sargeant becomes America’s first points scorer in 30 years after moving inside the top 10.

Aston Martin and Haas are set to start both of their respective cars from the pit lane at Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix after undertaking set-up changes.

The teams have both brought heavily revised packages to the Circuit of the Americas and have had setbacks through the course of the weekend.

The situation has also been compounded by set-ups being locked in after the sole practice session that took place on Friday.

Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg were due to start from 14th and 16th respectively while Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were set to line up from 17th and 19th on the grid.

“We learned the package is performing as we were expecting but we haven’t been able to optimise the set-up,” said Aston Martin’s Deputy Technical Director Eric Blandin.

“We will start both cars from the pit lane, and we are effectively changing the set-up, we think there is a lot more performance to come from the car.

“Lance is going to have the new spec, Fernando will have the Qatar-spec.”

Haas is also due to run different set-ups in a bid to understand more about its heavily revised VF-23.

Max Verstappen reiterated his stance on Formula 1’s Sprint Race by outlining he “doesn’t really get excited by it” and removes anticipation from Sunday’s grand prix.

Verstappen controlled proceedings in a bland Sprint race on Saturday at the Circuit of the Americas after starting from pole position.

He led all 19 laps and crossed the line almost 10 seconds clear of Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton.

“I love it, it’s fantastic,” said Verstappen sarcastically after being asked for his thoughts on the format.

“If you want my honest opinion about Sprint weekends, I don’t really get excited by it.

“In qualifying I just feel like once you complete qualifying you are a bit lost, I feel like we only need one qualifying in the weekend where you really put everything on the line and it feels great.

“This morning as well, put it on P1, like, pfft, it’s a Saturday, there’s not many points anyway for the race.

“And besides that like now we’ve done this race everyone more or less knows what’s going to happen tomorrow between all the cars in terms of pace, so it takes away a bit the excitement of it.

“If we had not done today, and we only have the qualifying that we had yesterday, you don’t really know what’s going to happen in the race, it’s exciting to turn on the TV because you dont know, and also we don’t know, now we know.”

When second-placed Hamilton playfully suggested Verstappen was finding life up front uninteresting the World Champion replied: “Not bored, but also as a fan I would just be disappointed because you more or less know the picture if nothing crazy happens, you know what’s going to happen tomorrow.

“I find that a bit… it takes away a bit that magic of waking up on a Sunday and turn on the tv and you had qualifying but you’re not sure what car’s going to be quickest – most of the years – and it takes that magic away, I find.”

Max Verstappen quipped that his error during qualifying for Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix “will make Sunday more fun” as he prepares to start from sixth.

Verstappen set a time quick enough for pole position during the closing stages of Q3, eclipsing Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc by just 0.005s.

But Verstappen’s effort was swiftly deleted after it was judged that he had exceeded track limits through Turn 19.

As a consequence Verstappen is set to start Sunday’s race from sixth place on the grid.

“I knew in Turn 19 that it was going to be a close call,” said Verstappen.

“I had a little mistake in Turn 1 so I had to really push for it in the rest of the lap. It’s fine margins, honestly, I didn’t even understeer, I just tried to really maximise the corner and I misjudged it by a little bit.

“It’s very fine margins when you are pushing to the limit. Of course it’s a bit unfortunate but it makes the Sunday also a bit more fun.”

Verstappen has won 14 of this year’s 17 races and will equal his own record of victories in a season if he can climb from sixth on Sunday.

“Of course we want to win so for sure today was not ideal, but it’s still a long race and there’s a lot of things we can do better and have a bit of fun out there as well,” he said.

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc labelled pole position as a surprise after he topped qualifying for Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix.

Leclerc claimed top spot through the early stages of Q3 and improved on his second run, before being eclipsed by Max Verstappen by just 0.005s.

However Verstappen’s time was deleted due to exceeding track limits and that elevated Leclerc back onto pole position.

“The car was really good and I think this is our biggest strength, when we get to a weekend like this, every lap counts, it’s important to start with a strong base set-up, that’s what we did,” said Leclerc.

“I felt good straight away so then in qualifying I tried to put it together, first lap felt better than the second lap but there was quite a bit of improvement and the second lap was good enough for pole.

“It’s a surprise for us, we definitely didn’t expect to be fighting for pole position here.”

Leclerc quipped that “I stopped thinking a long time ago” on expectations on account of Ferrari’s fluctuating form but outlined that the SF-23 provided him with confidence from the start of practice.

“I mean it’s very bumpy here, and the car felt good on the bumps, which gives you quite a bit of confidence to push on high speed,” he said.

“I think we’ve learned a massive amount this season, we learned how to maximise our car and that helped us to be more regularly at our 100 per cent and today is again proof so it’s a good sign for the future.”