George clinches P2 on the grid ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix

Focusing on Soft tyre running in FP3, George took to the track nine minutes into the session and quickly rocketed himself to the top of the standings with a 1.19.405 before heading back to the pits.

After being pushed down into P2, George switched to a fresh set of Softs to set a 1.18.399, his best session time, and move back into P1.

George completed 22 laps in the final practice session, ending the morning still in P1 ahead of the all-important Qualifying.

Making a steady start to Qualifying, George put in his first run with nine minutes left on the clock, moving him into P5 before being knocked down into P6 where he ended Q1, securing his spot in Q2.

In Q2, George quickly slotted into P2 behind his teammate Lewis Hamilton before returning to the pits.

With only two minutes remaining, George headed back out for a final run, narrowly missing out on P1 by only 0.013.

Carrying on his superb form, George slotted into P2 on his first run in the final top-10 shootout.

After ducking back into the pits, George re-emerged with only two minutes on the clock for his final run.

Despite having a fantastic start to the lap, the Brit missed out on pole position by 0.3 of a second to line up in P2 on the grid.

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George Russell – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One™ Team Driver

It feels like the team deserved more today - the car has been great this weekend and it's a testament to the hard work that has been going in for so long. At this high altitude, drag is less of a factor for us on the straights, and the update we brought to Austin is performing well. We saw last week with Lewis what the car was capable of, and this weekend, it felt like pole position was there for us.
I'm kicking myself about the final run, but at the end of the day, there are no points for qualifying and I'm excited to be back on the front row. We will be going for it in the race and our long runs looked decent yesterday, so I'm excited to go racing and see what we've got.