Mexico GP qualifying: Norris takes pole as title rivals struggle - ESPN

Lando Norris gave a significant boost to his championship chances Saturday by taking pole position for the Mexican Grand Prix while title rivals Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri qualified in fifth and eighth, respectively.

Norris is 14 points adrift of Piastri in the standings but will move ahead of his McLaren teammate if the two cars finish where they start in Sunday's race.

Norris' lap, which was 0.262 seconds clear of Charles Leclerc's Ferrari in second, also helps to counter the momentum of Verstappen, who has finished ahead of both McLarens at the past four races and is 40 points off Piastri.

No driver has won in Mexico after qualifying outside the top three since Alain Prost (13th) in 1990.

Reacting to his pole position on McLaren's team radio, Norris said: «What a lap, what a lap! Even I don't know how I did that… The less I know, the better.»

Lando Norris put in a blistering lap to take what could turn out to be a crucial pole position in the race for the drivers' title.

When asked about his lap in his post-qualifying interview, Norris said he did not expect to be as dominant as he was.

"[It was] one of those laps where you don't really know what happened, it felt decent but then when I crossed the line and saw a 15.5 [milliseconds] I was very pleasantly surprised." Norris said.

A disappointed Piastri admitted that he is unsure why he has struggled for pace so far this weekend.

[The car] feels OK, just no pace which is a bit of a mystery — it's been more or less the same gap all weekend. We will have a look at where I was going wrong then and I would say a bit frustrating," the Australian told Sky Sports.

Norris' first task will be to fend off the two Ferraris of Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, who qualified second