Norris claims stunning Mexico pole as Verstappen and Piastri falter

Lando Norris reignited his title challenge with a blistering lap to secure pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix, outpacing Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in a dramatic qualifying session, Sport360NG reports.

The McLaren driver edged Leclerc’s Ferrari by 0.262 seconds to claim his first pole since July’s Belgian Grand Prix, while Hamilton produced his best qualifying result of the season to take third.

World champion Max Verstappen and fellow title contender Oscar Piastri endured difficult sessions, qualifying only fifth and seventh respectively, as Ferrari and Mercedes inserted themselves firmly into the championship mix.

Norris entered the final part of qualifying as favourite for pole after a strong weekend, but Leclerc’s first flying lap briefly put the Monegasque on provisional pole. The Briton responded with a superb final effort, clocking a 1:15.5 to reclaim top spot.

“What a lap, even I don’t know how I did that,” Norris exclaimed over team radio. “It’s been a while since I’ve been on pole. The lap just came together, and when I saw the time I was pleasantly surprised.”

Leclerc admitted he extracted the maximum from his Ferrari on a tricky low-grip circuit.
“This qualifying was very difficult, the car was sliding a lot and putting everything together was tough,” he said. “I’m happy with our performance, but there wasn’t much more to find. Hopefully we can challenge into Turn 1.”

Hamilton, 0.09 seconds behind his Mercedes team-mate George Russell, praised his team’s recent progress.
“I’m really happy to be back up here with Lando and Charles,” he said. “It’s the first time both of us [Mercedes drivers] have been in the top three all year, the team deserves it after all the hard work.”

Behind the front three, Verstappen struggled throughout the session with instability through the fast Esses section, finishing 0.484 seconds off the pace. The Red Bull driver admitted they “got it a little bit wrong” with setup choices.

“You can see it on the onboard, we just couldn’t find grip all weekend,” Verstappen said. “When the car slides like that here, you lose so much time. It’s been a tough one.”

Piastri, meanwhile, continued to search for answers after a subdued weekend. His final lap briefly lifted him to third, only to be bumped down to eighth before being promoted to seventh by Carlos Sainz’s five-place grid penalty for a crash in Austin.

“It just feels like there’s no pace,” said the Australian. “It’s been the same gap all weekend, a bit of a mystery. We’ll have to dig into it.”

Norris trails Piastri by 14 points in the drivers’ standings but could regain the championship lead if he wins and his team-mate fails to make significant progress on Sunday.