Lando Norris claims F1 Mexico City GP pole as Oscar Piastri flounders

Lando Norris claimed pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix, with a mighty lap for McLaren at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. The Briton left his title rivals in his wake earning a chance to make a major impact on the championship standings on Sunday and potentially to retake the lead .

Enjoying a huge boost to his world championship ambitions, Norris delivered an immense lap, perhaps his best of the season in qualifying, to beat the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton into second and third place. However of real import was that fellow title protagonists Max Verstappen and his McLaren teammate, Oscar Piastri, could manage only fifth and eighth place respectively.

The pole was a real statement of intent from Norris and McLaren and exactly the riposte they required after the recent momentum Verstappen has gathered as he closed the gap to the leaders.

Having been 104 points behind Piastri after the Dutch GP in August, Verstappen has won three of the last four meetings and is now just 40 points off the Australian and 14 points behind Norris. It has been an extraordinary turnaround for the team and driver, with Verstappen having effectively written off his chances of defending his title at the midpoint of the season.

After which Norris badly needed to reassert some authority, having not taken pole since the Belgian GP. To finally do so and start the race from the front was a major step in steadying the ship. If he wins and Piastri finishes below second the British driver will regain the lead of the championship for the first time since the fifth round of the season in Saudi Arabia.

He exhibited a cool command in qualifying that was indicative of how the McLaren remains an enormously strong car strong and indeed how comfortable and confident Norris can be when he has it hooked up. It stood in stark contrast to his teammate however.

Oscar Piastri looks rueful after a tough qualification. Photograph: Peter Fox/Getty Images

Piastri struggled, off the pace of the front runners and unable to challenge for the top spot. It was a similar lack of competitiveness to that he experienced at the last round in Austin as the Australian’s pace over the single lap he demonstrated earlier in the season appears to be sorely lacking. He has not qualified better than third since the Dutch GP which has been crucial in the way his title lead has been whittled away.

McLaren will also be confident there is more to come for Norris at least. Their car has looked very strong in race pace simulations in Mexico, with Norris in particular putting in some very strong runs. Verstappen has already warned his rival might enjoy the better car on Sunday when it matters, despite the circuit not being best suited to the strengths of the McLaren. The long drag to turn one of 830m may yet prove crucial as the leaders jockey for a slipstream and emerging in clean air in front from the first corner could make all the difference.

Norris had been comfortably on top heading into the first runs in Q3 when Verstappen opened with a strong first lap with a time of 1 minute 16.455 seconds. Norris followed and with an immense second and third sectors went quicker by almost three-tenths. However Leclerc had more to come and managed to take the top sport from Norris with Hamilton moving up to third in front of Verstappen, as Ferrari showed real pace.

On the final runs Piastri was the first of the McLarens out, with Verstappen in his wake. The Australian could not match Leclerc and Verstappen also missed the top spot but Norris was flying behind them. Fastest in both the first two sectors he threw the car into the corners to claim pole as Leclerc could not match what was an exceptional lap with a time of 1min 15.586 sec, over two-tenths up on the Ferrari.

It is Norris’s first pole in Mexico, while McLaren have not taken pole here since Gerhard Berger took the top spot in 1990, while the team’s last victory was at the hands of Ayrton Senna in 1989.