Jenson Button feels Lewis Hamilton took his first pole with Ferrari at the 2026 Mexico City Grand Prix after gaining confidence from driving smoothly, yet did make an error.

Hamilton is now the oldest polesitter in F1 for 44 years after he edged his British compatriot George Russell of Mercedes by only 0.009 seconds to lead qualifying for the Mexico City GP. It even marks the seven-time F1 champion’s first pole position since the 2023 Hungarian GP.

The 41-year-old took car #44 around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in a 1:16.514 lap to post a benchmark that his rivals would not eclipse. Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc had been the Scuderia’s main hope throughout practice and most of the hour in qualifying, too.

Lewis Hamilton has his first pole for Ferrari at the Mexico City GP – Let's hear your big takeaways!

At one stage, it even seemed like Hamilton could join McLaren rival Oscar Piastri in bowing out of qualifying in Mexico City in Q2, after the Ferrari ace had a scruffy start to the second phase. Yet in the end, Hamilton achieved the 105th pole of his F1 career, and thus became the eldest polesitter since Mario Andretti did so with Ferrari at the 1982 Italian Grand Prix.

Button was left in awe by Hamilton scoring pole for the Mexico City GP, as he could tell how his former McLaren teammate gained confidence with himself and in the Ferrari SF-26 over his pole lap. Yet Button did notice how Hamilton almost hurt his hopes by taking a lot of the inside kerb through the left-hand Turn 2 to start the lap, which unsettled the rear of his car.

Button said on Sky Sports F1 (31/10, 22:24): “It was [incredible], and watching that lap back, he’s so smooth. There’s one moment in Turn 2 that he uses a lot of kerb, and he gets a little bit of oversteer. But apart from that, he’s driving within the limits, and I think that’s a big positive for him. He’s confident himself, [and] confident in the car, and he’s getting it done.”

Hamilton tried to cut back as much as he could through Turn 2 to help open the steering for Turn 3 and onto the second straight at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on what proved to be his pole position lap. But doing so meant Hamilton had to catch a slide that edged him slightly off the racing line, and the Ferrari driver did very well to avoid losing too much time.

The 106-time Grand Prix winner had just set a new overall fastest mini-sector into the first chicane to open his flying lap, but his mistake in Turn 2 cost him time to his provisional Q3 run. It was also ultimately the only one from the eight mini-sectors in sector one where he did not improve his time, which proved to be a similar story in the middle and final sectors.

Hamilton also improved his pace through all but one of the eight mini-sectors in sector two and all but one of the six in sector three. He first lost time on the exit of Turn 6 and down to Turn 7, and then lost another fraction of time on the run to the finish line, but still got pole.