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lando norris F1 title rivals abandoned max verstappen And oscar piastri After reaching pole position at the Mexican Grand Prix, he fell short.
Norris ended his six-race run without a pole position, his last belgium In July, by dominating the field and defeating Ferrari charles leclerc From 0.262 seconds.
This was a significant boost to Norris’ title hopes as rivals Verstappen and Piastri were struggling in fifth and eighth respectively.
Piastri would start from seventh place due to a grid penalty for Williams’ Carlos Sainz, but the championship leader was well off the pace throughout the weekend and trailed by almost six tenths.
Lewis Hamilton takes third place in another impressive day ferrari And he will be hoping to land his first podium for the Scuderia on Sunday.
Verstappen arrived in Mexico City as the in-form man, having returned to the championship race having won three of the last four races, and was favorite to take another win in Mexico City – where he has won five times before.
He trails leader Piastri by 40 points – down from 104 five races ago – and is 26 points behind second-placed Norris, who still has 141 points to contend with.
Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez claims longest race from pole to turn one braking point f1 calendar, and Norris will be prepared for an 830-metre test race when the lights go out on Sunday.
Top-10 – Mexico GP Grid
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
9) Ollie Bearman – Haas
10) Yuki Tsunoda – Red Bull
The Mexico City circuit is one of the toughest circuits of the season, with the low air density at altitude making it difficult to generate downforce.
Verstappen was one of the drivers struggling for balance in the early session of qualifying and was only ninth fastest, with Racing Bulls’ Isak Hadjar leading and Norris fourth.
Piastri was ousted in Q1 here 12 months ago. With relief on the face of team principal Andrea Stella, he trailed by less than a tenth in Q3 but was no threat to pole and had a big job to do on Sunday to save his title lead from significant damage.
Leclerc reached provisional pole on the first run in Q3, but Norris found the answer with his own run, a superb 1.15.586 second lap that could prove crucial in his title bid.