Norris powers to Mexico GP pole, Piastri struggles to eighth

Norris pushed the absolute limits of his McLaren to claim his 14th career pole and fifth of the season, setting a time of 1m15.586s.

The Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton will be satisfied with their qualifying efforts, finishing second and third, 0.262s and 0.352s behind Norris respectively.

Leclerc had produced an incredible banker lap early in Q3 and looked set to steal a stunning pole before Norris came out and took the top spot.

Piastri, meanwhile, set the eighth fastest time of the session, 0.588s behind his teammate. He will move up to seventh on the grid due to Carlos Sainz’s five-place penalty from the United States Grand Prix, but still faces a challenge after another difficult session.

he 24-year-old narrowly made it into Q3, reporting power unit issues throughout Q2 and only scraping through with a last-lap effort.

The result marks the fifth consecutive race in which Piastri has been outqualified by Norris, though the gap was the closest of the weekend.

Norris said he was delighted with the lap that secured McLaren’s first pole in Mexico since 1990.

“I’m happy to be back on pole. It’s been quite a long time. It’s a good feeling,” he said.

“It was one of those laps where you don’t really know what happened. It felt decent but when I crossed the line…I was pleasantly surprised.”

“I got a bit nervous of the Ferraris in Q3 but I pulled it out when it mattered.”

Leclerc said he was pleased to overcome grip issues to secure a front-row start.

“This qualifying is very difficult because there’s very little grip so the car is sliding a lot,” he said.

“In order to put everything together it’s very tricky. I’m very happy with the job we’ve done.”

Hamilton echoed his teammate’s thoughts, saying he was excited to be in the top three together with Leclerc and aiming to make the most of P3, his best qualifying for Ferrari.

“I’m really really happy,” he said.

“I’m honoured to be up here with Charles and Lando. These guys have been quick all year.

“This is the first time we’ve both been up in Q3 all year. The team really deserve it.

“P3 is the perfect spot at this track. I’m hoping I can make the most of that at the start.”

George Russell will start fifth, edging Max Verstappen by four hundredths of a second to take the second row.

It was a disappointing session for Verstappen, who could not secure a fifth consecutive front-row start, with fifth his lowest grid position since the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Kimi Antonelli was sixth in the second Mercedes ahead of Sainz, who will drop to 12th following his penalty. Isack Hadjar and Oliver Bearman rounded out the top ten, with Bearman impressing again by reaching Q3 for a third consecutive session.

Liam Lawson was the biggest casualty of Q2, the Kiwi unable to find grip and failing to set a competitive time. He will start 15th, his lowest position since the British Grand Prix, a disappointing end to a session in which he had shown strong pace in Q1.

Yuki Tsunoda also failed to progress, finishing 11th after being caught out by Piastri’s late escape from the session, marking the Japanese driver’s third consecutive Q2 elimination.

Esteban Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso were the other drivers eliminated in the second qualifying session.

Q1 had already claimed a notable scalp, with Alex Albon failing to knock Antonelli off the bubble.

The Mercedes rookie survived by the narrowest of margins in a session surprisingly topped by Hadjar. Albon reported brake issues, echoing the problems that disrupted his FP3 running.

It was Albon’s third Q1 exit in four races, joined by Gabriel Bortoleto, Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll and Franco Colapinto as the drivers eliminated in the opening phase.

Cars return to the track for the race in Mexico at 2pm local time on Sunday (7am AEDT Monday).