Sainz on Mexico City pole, but Norris 'happy' with third
· BBC SportAndrew Benson
F1 Correspondent
Title rivals Max Verstappen and Lando Norris start Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix from second and third on the grid behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Verstappen heads into the race 57 points clear of Norris, who needs to gain on the Red Bull driver by an average of just under 12 points a race to overtake him in the remaining five grands prix.
Norris qualified his McLaren just 0.089 seconds slower than Verstappen, but Sainz was in a league of his own, on pole by 0.225secs from the Dutchman to underline Ferrari’s surge in form over the last few races.
The second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, dominant winner of the United States Grand Prix last weekend, starts fourth, ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
The top four are all focused on the run to the first corner, the longest of the season, on which the powerful slipstream effect can give the advantage to the drivers in second and third on the grid.
The winner of this race has come from third on the grid - Norris’ position - in three of the last four races.
Sainz, who took his first pole since Singapore 2023 and for whom both laps in final qualifying were good enough to start at the front, said: “Probably the biggest difficult thing will be the run down into Turn One and starting on pole with a slipstream, no?
“I just need to make sure I do a good 0-100km/h, which is the most important thing when you start on pole, just make sure you do a good jump. And from there obviously do the best I can to defend.
“I have two guys behind fighting for quite important things and the run down into Turn One should be interesting. I have obviously less to lose in that sense.”
To boost his title hopes, Norris needs to win the race and hope the Ferraris finish between him and Verstappen.
But the Briton fears the pace of the Ferraris - Leclerc has taken two wins and a second in the last four races.
Norris said: “The last few weekends, they've been extremely quick and quicker than us, so it's... I don't have the confidence to say, yes, we can just beat them on pace. Like today, not on their level.
“I had definitely nowhere near close to 0.3secs left in the car. So it was more that they just went quicker. I was at the limit.”
How will incidents be judged?
The race takes place against the backdrop of a debate about racing rules following a controversial penalty given to Norris in the US Grand Prix after overtaking Verstappen on track.
Many drivers feel that Verstappen, while driving to the letter of the rules, defended in an unfair manner by taking both cars off the track and governing body the FIA has agreed to revise the racing guidelines in time for the Qatar Grand Prix in two races’ time.
This leaves the question as to how the stewards will judge similar incidents in Sunday’s race, but Sainz said he expected little would change for now.
“A lot of drivers opened up about how they felt about each situation and what we think is the best way forward,” he said, ”how you interpret the rules and those driving guidelines that the stewards are going to apply penalties with.
“They’re still the same coming into this weekend and probably I think they will be applied in a similar manner.”
Verstappen and Norris happy with positions
Verstappen was pleased to be on the front row after a difficult Friday on which he said he got “basically no data” because of an engine problem that restricted him to six laps.
“We were massively on the back foot,” Verstappen said. "After yesterday, I knew it would be a tough weekend, but we kept making little improvements with the car.
“Qualifying felt better and to be on the front row is an incredible result if you look back at yesterday.”
Norris set the fastest time in the first and second parts of qualifying but found himself lacking in the final session. A messy first run was followed by a second on which he said he could not go any faster.
“I am pretty happy with third, honestly,” Norris said. “I feel like I got to the limit of the car quite quickly, which made us look quite good but I struggled to get any more out of it.”
Norris will have no support in the race from his team-mate Oscar Piastri, who was knocked out in the first session for the second race in a row.
McLaren did their first runs on medium tyres in the first session to try to save softs for later but it seems to have harpooned Piastri.
The Australian said: “The medium I didn’t have much confidence on, the first soft lap I was going well and then I just went wide at Turn 12. We tried to go again but I had zero grip because the tyres were too hot. Disappointing.
“The car is quick. Just a shame I have to start from the back again. Ironically, it’s the same place Lando started last year and he did have a good race, so all is not lost.”
Verstappen’s team-mate Sergio Perez had the latest in a long run of difficult qualifyings that have put his future in the team in doubt, 0.8secs slower than Verstappen in Q1 and knocked out in 18th place.
“Into the low speed, I cannot brake, I cannot attack the car,” Perez said. “I just start sliding. That is my main issue at the moment and here it showed even more.
“Every time I try to attack, it just starts locking up. There are four races to go and we have to get on top of it as a team.”
Bad luck for Alonso the 400th race man
Russell was positively surprised to be as high as fifth after crashing in second practice on Friday, the fourth incident for a Mercedes driver in four days of on-track action. That meant he is running an older-specification car while Lewis Hamilton has the upgrade introduced in Austin.
“Really happy with the recovery,” he said. “We are still on the old bits from 12 races ago. My lap felt really strong, super-happy with it.
“Checo and Piastri are out of position. P5 is probably is the best we could have hoped for. The three teams in front have got a bit of a battle on their hands so maybe the race will come towards us.”
Fernando Alonso qualified 13th for Aston Martin on the weekend on which he is celebrating his 400th grand prix.
But he said he felt he could have been in the top 10 had it not been for a red flag that truncated second qualifying when Yuki Tsunoda crashed his RB coming into the stadium section.
“There was more to come,” Alonso said. “I was happily surprised by the car in qualifying. It felt much better and I could attack with confidence.
“The lap with red flag I was 0.2secs up and maybe P9 or P10 was possible. Happy with the car and maybe this gives us a trend to come back in the race.”
The rest of the top10 behind Hamilton was completed by Haas driver Kevin Magnussen, Pierre Gasly's Alpine, Alex Albon's Williams and the second Haas of Nico Hulkenberg.