Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
lando norris He praised the “incredible” lap as he claimed pole position for the Mexican Grand Prix, which gave a huge boost to his championship hopes.
Norris blows up the field Mexico City Beating Ferrari with a lap of 1.15.586, to take his first pole since Belgium in July charles leclerc From pole to pole by 0.262 seconds.
their title rivals max verstappen And oscar piastri They could only finish fifth and eighth respectively on what could prove to be an important day in the title race.
Championship leader Piastri would start from seventh due to a grid penalty for Williams’ Carlos Sainz, but his pace had been slow all weekend and he was almost six tenths behind his team-mate’s pole pace.
Lewis Hamilton was third in an even better day for Ferrari, with George Russell fourth, and will hope for a first podium with the Scuderia on Sunday.
Norris surprised even himself with his lap, saying over the team radio: “Ah, what a lap. What a lap! Even I don’t know how I did it!”
He said after qualifying: “It was an unbelievable lap. There were a few places where I thought I messed something up.
“I had a big smile on my face when I saw 15.5. It was one of those laps where it all came together.
“This year I don’t often get that feeling in this car, no matter how good it is.”
Verstappen, who has won three of the last four races to move ahead in the title race, now trails Piastri by 40 points – down from 104 five races ago – and is 26 points behind second-placed Norris with 141 points still to contest.
He has five previous wins in Mexico and was a favorite for another victory on Sunday, but he did not have the pace to match Norris in qualifying and was nearly five tenths behind.
It was an even tougher day for Piastri, whose poor title bid suffered another blow as a difficult weekend continued.
According to McLaren team principal Andrea Stella, the Australian was slower than Norris at every corner, and was unable to explain his struggles.
“There’s no pace there which is a bit of a mystery,” Piastri told Sky Sports.
“It’s just this weekend and last weekend it felt like the momentum wasn’t there.
“I’ll try my best (to turn one in) in the long run. This will be an opportunity to make some progress going forward. We’ll see what I can do.”
The Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez boasts the longest race from pole to the turn one braking point in the F1 calendar and Norris expects a challenge from the Ferrari pair when the lights go out.
Verstappen was disappointed with his chances in the race, saying: “I need people to retire in front of me to move forward.”
But Norris believes his title rivals will progress.
“You’re talking about the two best drivers on the grid, so I wouldn’t go ahead of them,” he said.
“I hope Oscar comes back and runs a good race, he usually does.
“It’s the same with Max, when has Max not come on the attack? Hopefully I can stay ahead on the first lap and these guys (Leclerc and Hamilton) can hold off everyone else.”