Mexican Grand Prix qualifying: Vettel grabs pole, Hamilton on second row

Whether it's the altitude or end-of-season wobbles, it's been an odd Mexican Grand Prix weekend so far, with plenty of thrills, spills and even a fire extinguisher bursting all over Sebastian Vettel's seat.

Qualifying got off to a lovely start as Sergio Perez began the session with a radio message directed at the crowd and the viewing millions, broadcast over the PA system, welcoming them to his home race.

Valtteri Bottas was the first Mercedes out of the garage, but he was trumped by team-mate Lewis Hamilton - by only 0.06 seconds.

McLaren's Fernando Alonso was on absolutely blistering form, despite a couple of data concerns about his turbo from the pit wall.

"That was great, the car feels great as well," said Alonso at the end of the spell.

Toro Rosso weren't planning to run Pierre Gasly, whose car was suffering problems and would be getting grid penalties. However, it transpired nobody had told the mechanics, who were readying the car regardless. Gasly, who was already in civvies, ran off to get changed - and then the team decided that they weren't going to get him out on track after all.

"No power, no power!" exclaimed Brendon Hartley as he pulled up by the side of the track. Not a good day for Toro Rosso.

It was a better lap for Red Bull, with Max Verstappen setting a new track record, a whole half a second quicker than the Mercedes were going.

Neither McLaren clocked a time for Q2 - deliberately so.

Verstappen was quickest again, faster than Vettel who must have thought he had provisional pole snapped up, and quicker than Hamilton - both of whom headed right back to the pits for a rethink.

Meanwhile, Bottas was still in the garage musing upon the best time to head out on track for a flying lap - before finding out that Verstappen was about to be investigated for potentially impeding him.

Vettel took advantage of the confusion to clock a new track record - and grab the 50th pole position of his career.

If you're not a Red Bull or Max Verstappen fan, you'd have laughed with bitter irony at the news that he could potentially have his front row start snatched away - after missing out on the podium because of a time penalty last week. It's a Mercedes second row - will Vettel be able to put enough distance and enough cars between himself and Hamilton to keep his championship hopes alive?

Toro Rosso's dismal run of form continued - and one had to feel a bit sorry for Hartley, who didn't know whether he might get another penalty for that particular failure.

Sergio Perez will want to pull one out of the bag for the home fans - keep an eye on Force India.

Hamilton - Verstappen - Vettel