Norris romps to superb pole at Mexico City Grand Prix

Lando Norris pipped Ferrari duo Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton to pole

McLaren's Lando Norris gave his title hopes a boost by taking pole position at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Title rivals Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri will start the race fifth and seventh, as both Ferrari drivers and Mercedes' George Russell muscled in on the championship fight.

Norris beat Ferrari's Charles Leclerc by 0.262 seconds, while Lewis Hamilton secured his best grand prix qualifying position of the season in third.

Verstappen, struggling with his Red Bull through the Esses, was 0.484secs off the pace in fifth and beaten by Russell by just 0.036secs.

Piastri, off the pace all weekend, briefly moved up to third with his final lap until he was beaten by a succession of other drivers.

He qualified eighth, behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli and Williams driver Carlos Sainz, but is promoted a place on the grid by the Spaniard's five-place grid penalty for causing a crash in Austin last weekend.

Norris looked the favourite for pole going into the final shootout for the top 10 grid positions after a strong weekend, but Leclerc gave him a fright when he pulled out a superb lap on his first run to take provisional pole.

Although Leclerc also improved on his own final run, the Briton eclipsed the Ferrari driver with a scintillating lap to take his first pole since the Belgian Grand Prix back in July.

'What a lap... even I don't know how I did that'

On the radio to the team afterwards, Norris said: "What a lap. What a lap. Even I don't know how I did that."

Once out of the car, Norris added: "I'm happy to be back on pole. It has been quite a long time. The lap, it was one of those laps when you don't really know what happened. It felt decent but when I crossed the line and saw a [one minute] 15.5, I was very pleasantly surprised.

"I have been feeling good all weekend. I got a little bit nervous of the Ferrari in Q3 but I pulled it out in the end."

Leclerc, who had been nearly 0.2secs quicker than Norris on his first run, felt there was no capacity for anything else in the Ferrari.

"This qualifying is very difficult because there is very little grip so the car is sliding a lot and to put everything together is very tricky," he said.

"I am pretty happy with the job we have done. I don't think there is much more in the car. We will do everything to get the first place into the first corner and see what's possible."

Hamilton, whose previous best qualifying result this season was fourth in Monaco, was just 0.09secs off his team-mate's pace.

The seven-time champion said: "I'm really happy. I am honoured to be up here with Charles and Lando. These guys have been so quick all year and it's an amazing feeling.

"It's the first time we've both been up here all year and the team really deserve it. We have been working so hard."

Norris starts 14 points adrift of Piastri so will re-take the championship lead for the first time since April if he wins the race and Piastri cannot make any ground.

Piastri has been struggling all weekend and although he looked to have saved his qualifying with a final lap that put him up to third briefly, others knocked him down as they benefited from the track improvement.

The Australian ended up 0.588secs off Norris' pace to continue a difficult run of form in recent races.

Piastri said: "It all feels OK, just no pace. It is a bit of a mystery. It has been more or less the same gap all weekend. We will have to look at where it was going wrong then. Obviously a bit frustrating.

"This weekend, and last weekend really. It has just felt like the pace hasn't come. Not 100% sure why yet. We will do some digging."

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said: "There is a little bit to review on Oscar's side. [It's] more difficult for him to use the car when the conditions are more sliding. A little bit like the conditions were in Austin."

Verstappen, who has closed to within 40 points of Piastri after three wins and a second place in the past four races, was visibly struggling in the Red Bull - almost every lap he seemed to have an oversteer snap in the middle of the Esses, the quick series of left-rights in the middle of the lap.

"We tried a lot of stuff, even going into qualifying, and got it a little bit wrong in some areas of the track," he said.

"You only need to look at the onboard [camera] and you see enough.

"All weekend we couldn't find the grip in the car and it is something we need to understand, and when you have those issues you are sliding a lot and on this track you cannot afford that. This whole weekend has been tough."