Norris Takes Mexico City Pole, Narrows Gap

Lando Norris took pole for the Mexico City Grand Prix with a 1:15.586 lap, beating Charles Leclerc by 0.262 seconds and putting Lewis Hamilton third. It is Norris’s fifth pole of the season and McLaren’s first pole in Mexico since 1990. Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri qualified fifth and eighth respectively, though Piastri will be promoted one place on the grid after Carlos Sainz was handed a five-place penalty. Norris sits 14 points behind championship leader Piastri, making the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez’s long run to turn one — and the start slipstream — pivotal for converting pole into a race win. Other notable qualifiers were George Russell fourth, rookie Kimi Antonelli sixth, and Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar and Haas’ Oliver Bearman completing the top 10.