F1 Mexico GP live: Race start time, Norris eyes title lead as Piastri struggles

max verstappen He believes he will need the cars to move up the order at Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix before “retiring” them after qualifying only fifth on the grid.

In a surprising way, red BullVerstappen struggled for pace and will start on the third row between the Mercedes drivers of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli.

Asked where he thought the car’s problems were, Piastri was unable to provide any clarity, telling Sky Sports: “It all feels fine, there’s just no pace. It’s a bit of a mystery.

“It’s been more or less the difference all weekend, we’ll see where things go wrong. Obviously a bit frustrating.”

Asked to elaborate further on how the car feels different from the beginning of the year: “It’s not a huge amount to be honest, this weekend and last weekend it felt like the pace wasn’t there. Not 100% sure why yet, we’ll do some digging.

“We will try our best [at the start]”This will be an opportunity to make some progress going forward, so we’ll see what we can do.”

“I’m really happy, honored to be here with Charles and Lando, these guys have been very fast all year, for the first time we’ve been in the top three in qualifying.

“I am very grateful to the team for their continued efforts, we have achieved so much more.

On the race:“It’s hard to beat these two guys, P3 is the perfect spot on this track. Our racepace is not too bad, it will be an amazing crowd tomorrow.”

“I’m very happy with the work we’ve done, there wasn’t much left in the car.

On the race: “We’ll try our best in the first corner and see what’s possible.”

1) Lando Norris – McLaren

2) Charles Leclerc – Ferrari

3) Lewis Hamilton – Ferrari

4) George Russell – Mercedes

5) Max Verstappen – Red Bull

6) Kimi Antonelli – Mercedes

7) Oscar Piastri – McLaren

8) Isak Hadjar – Racing Bulls

10) Yuki Tsunoda – Red Bull

On his lap: “I’m happy to be back on pole, it’s been quite a long time. The lap – I don’t know, you don’t really know what happened, it felt good, I was very pleasantly surprised. I felt good all weekend. Was a bit nervous with the Ferrari in Q3 at the end – but very happy with that.

On race preparation: “I haven’t been sleeping well lately, maybe that’s the key. I’ve had some good races here in the past, just focus, that’s all I can do.”

On races/title races: “I came here to win. I will look forward, I know there are some fast people behind me, Ferrari’s racepace is very fast, I know it will not be easy.”

This is McLaren’s first pole position in Mexico since 1990.

“Ah what a lap, what a lap. I don’t know how I did it. The less I know the better!”

Great lap from Lando to take pole – what a lap!

Norris took third place, beating Charles Leclerc by 0.262 seconds, while Lewis Hamilton finished third!

Piastri only eighth (net seventh) and Verstappen fifth! A dream session for Norris!

4-10: Russell, Verstappen, Antonelli, Sainz (five-place grid penalty), Piastri, Hadjar, Bearman

Big moments for the weekend here – it’s an attractive grid right now, but how much change will we have here?!