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Laurence Edmondson
Lando Norris gave a significant boost to his championship chances Saturday by taking pole position for the Mexican Grand Prix while title rivals Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri qualified in fifth and seventh, respectively.
Norris is 14 points adrift of Piastri in the standings but will move ahead of his McLaren teammate if the two cars finish where they start in Sunday’s race.
Norris’ lap, which was 0.262 seconds clear of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari in second, also helps to counter the momentum of Verstappen, who has finished ahead of both McLarens at the past four races and is 40 points off Piastri.
No driver has won in Mexico after qualifying outside the top three since Alain Prost (13th) in 1990.
Reacting to his pole position on McLaren’s team radio, Norris said: “What a lap, what a lap! Even I don’t know how I did that. … The less I know, the better.”
When asked about his lap in his post-qualifying interview, Norris said he did not expect to be as dominant as he was.
“[It was] one of those laps where you don’t really know what happened, it felt decent but then when I crossed the line and saw a 15.5 [milliseconds], I was very pleasantly surprised.” Norris said.
A disappointed Piastri admitted that he is unsure why he has struggled for pace this weekend.
“[The car] feels OK, just no pace which is a bit of a mystery — it’s been more or less the same gap all weekend. We will have a look at where I was going wrong then and I would say a bit frustrating,” the Australian told Sky Sports.
Norris’ first task will be to fend off the two Ferraris of Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, who qualified second and third, on the long run down to Turn 1.
Hamilton’s qualifying performance was his best since joining Ferrari, and he was just 0.090 seconds off teammate Leclerc.
“These guys have been so quick all year and it’s an amazing feeling,” Hamilton said. “This is the first time we’ve both been up in the top three in qualifying this year and the team truly deserve it, so we are just working as hard as we can and I’m super grateful to everyone in this team for continuing to push and not give up.
“Considering we’ve not really moved the car forward necessarily in development, but we’ve extracted more, and our processes are better this weekend, and that is what you’re seeing.”
His Ferrari teammate Leclerc said: “It is very difficult, this qualifying. It’s very difficult because there is very little grip, so the car is sliding a lot. It is very tricky, but pretty happy with the job we have done. I don’t think there was much left in the car.”
George Russell qualified fourth for Mercedes and will start ahead of Verstappen in fifth and Kimi Antonelli in sixth.
Carlos Sainz qualified seventh but will drop to 12th after a five-place grid penalty for a collision with Antonelli at last weekend’s U.S. Grand Prix is applied.
The penalty means Piastri moved one place up the grid from his qualifying result and will start seventh ahead of the Racing Bull of Isack Hadjar.
Haas driver Oliver Bearman secured his third Q3 appearance in as many races and will start ninth once Sainz’s penalty is taken into account.
Under pressure, Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda qualified 10th thanks to Sainz’s penalty, but was 0.012 seconds off a place in Q3. Red Bull is expected to decide on Tsunoda’s future after this weekend’s race, and qualifying behind Hadjar — the driver tipped to replace him next year — will only have weakened his case for staying at the team.
Esteban Ocon qualified 11th and will start ahead of Sainz on the grid. The Sauber of Nico Hülkenberg secured 13th on the grid ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in 14th and the second Racing Bull of Liam Lawson in 15th.
Gabriel Bortoleto will start 16th after qualifying his Sauber 0.121 seconds off a place in Q2. Alex Albon failed to make it out of Q1 for the fourth grand prix qualifying in a row after complaining of brake issues as he returned to the pits.
Pierre Gasly will start 18th for Alpine ahead of Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in 19th and the second Alpine of Franco Colapinto in last place.
