Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz beat title rivals Max Verstappen and Lando Norris to pole position at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Sainz, who took his first pole position since the 2023 Singapore Grand Prix, was quick enough to take pole on both of his runs in final qualifying.

The Spaniard finished 0.225 seconds faster than Verstappen, with Norris just 0.089 seconds further back.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished fourth, ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

Norris starts the race 57 points behind Verstappen and there are still 146 points available over the remaining five races.

At first glance, third place is not ideal for a driver who needs to average almost twelve points per race for the rest of the season to win the title.

But Mexico has one of the longest runs to the first corner of any circuit in F1 and sometimes it can be an advantage to start from the back due to the powerful slipstream effect.

The winner in Mexico has come from third on the grid in three of the last four races.

Norris said: “I’m honestly quite happy with third place. I feel like I reached the limit of the car quite quickly, which made us look quite good, but I struggled to get more out of it.

“None of us have done real long runs with the tires we will be running on tomorrow, but Ferrari has been very fast in qualifying and on the long runs lately, so it will be tough.”

Both Norris and Verstappen were under more pressure than usual in the final laps, as neither had a good lap time on the board.

Verstappen’s first lap was canceled for exceeding track limits and Norris’s was simply slow.

Verstappen, who lost almost all of Friday due to an engine problem, said: “Yesterday I didn’t actually do any laps, so I was already under a lot of pressure and that added some more pressure.

“I’m very happy to be in the front row, I didn’t think that would be possible.”

Sainz said: “Great few laps. Often in Mexico you always feel like you can’t do a lap and it’s extremely difficult with how much sliding there is. But my two laps were almost identical, almost perfect.

“Since Austin we have taken a step forward, especially on my side, also in qualifying we tried to find something different with the outlap and tire preparation. I’m looking forward to finishing the job tomorrow, but I’ll take pole position. Very happy.”

Norris has no support from his teammate Oscar Piastri, who was eliminated in the first session for the second race in a row.

McLaren made their first runs on medium tires in the first session to try and save soft tires for later, but it appears to have harpooned Piastri.

The Australian said: “The medium I didn’t have much confidence in, the first soft lap I went well and then I just went wide into Turn 12. We tried to go again but I had no grip because the tires were too hot. . Disappointing.

“The car is fast. It’s just a pity that I have to start from the back again. Ironically, it’s the same place Lando started last year and he had a good race, so all is not lost.”

Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez also had another difficult session, going 0.8 seconds slower than Verstappen in Q1 and retiring in 18th place.

“At low speed I can’t brake, I can’t attack the car,” Perez said. “I just start sliding. That’s my main problem right now and more came up here.

“Every time I try to attack it just starts to freeze. There are still four races to go and we have to get on top of it as a team.”

Russell was positively surprised to finish fifth after a crash in the second practice session on Friday, the fourth incident for a Mercedes driver in four days of on-track action. That meant he drove an older specification car, while Lewis Hamilton had the upgrade introduced in Austin.

“Really happy with the recovery,” he said. “We are still on the old stretches from twelve races ago. My lap felt very strong, very happy with it.

“Checo and Piastri are out of position. P5 is probably the best we could have hoped for. The three teams at the front have a tough battle ahead of them, so maybe the race will come to us.”

Fernando Alonso qualified 13th for Aston Martin on the weekend celebrating his 400th Grand Prix, but said he felt he could have been in the top 10 had there not been a red flag curtailing second qualifying when Yuki Tsunoda crashed his RB. enter the stadium area.

“There would be more to come,” Alonso said. “I was pleasantly surprised by the car in qualifying. It felt much better and I could attack with confidence.

“On the red flag lap I was 0.2 seconds ahead and maybe P9 or P10 was possible. I’m happy with the car and maybe this will give us a trend to get back into the race.”

More to follow