Lando Norris blew the rest of the Formula One field away in qualifying at the Mexican Grand Prix. He was 3/10ths quicker than Charles Leclerc in a surprise second place as the Ferrari’s appeared to come alive in the cooler temperatures of the late afternoon.
Team mate Oscar Piastri continued his disappointing weekend and was again 6/10ths of a second slower than Norris, classified ton start eighth. Yet a grid drop for Carlos Sazin carried over from the US GP will see the Australian start seventh, two places behind rival Max Verstappen.
The Mexico City Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, is a unique challenge for the F1 teams. At 2,285 metres above sea level, its the highest track on the F1 calendar and with around 25% less oxygen in the air than at sea level and this has implications for the teams.
Ferrari have a turbo advantage
The reduced air density means the powertrains do not work as efficiently as at sea level yet Ferrari’s turbo is a unique design which is less affected than the others. Then there’s the reduced downforce to consider along with cooling efficiency and drag, all of which points to which cars will work the best in the Grand Prix.
The speed trap times make for interesting reading with Carlos Sainz Williams being quickest at 352.7kph. Norris was just tenth in the pecking order with his MCL39 clocking up 349.8kph. This is hardly surprising given the relatively draggy nature of the McLaren car which may prove a challenge to Norris despite his mega lap for pole.
“I’m happy to be back on pole, it’s actually been quite a long time. A good feeling,” he said after the session. It was the Belgian Grand Prix in late July when Lando started at the front of the grid. ”The lap? I don’t know. It was one of those laps where you don’t really know what happened, it felt decent but when I crossed the line and saw 1m 15.5s, I was very pleasantly surprised.
“I’ve been feeling good all weekend, especially from today, FP3, Q1, Q2, Q3. I got a little bit nervous of the Ferraris in Q3 at the end but I pulled it out when it mattered and I’m happy because of that.”
Norris concerned about longest run to T1
Norris understands the 830 metre run down to turn one will be critical at the start of the Grand Prix and was questioned whether his top speed deficit wold be a problem. “That’s tonight {job],” Norris said after qualifying. That’s with my engineers and my team around me to review things, see what’s best.
“Of course, you want a good start and go from there. But it’s a long run. I don’t know what our straight-line speed is like compared to the Ferrari. In general, I think we’ve been a touch down, so we’ll wait and see.”
Part of the effect of the altitude means the teams run high downforce wings making the slipstream effect particularly strong something Norris recognises. “I’ll be looking forward, I know I’m going to have some quick guys behind me and it’s a long run down to Turn 1 and so forth. The race pace from the Ferraris is normally really strong so I’m expecting a battle, I’m not expecting it to be easy.”
Charles Leclerc starting alongside Lando Norris has a new set of soft tyres available to him. In Austin he employed a similar strategy, when those around him started on the medium and it helped him jump Lando Norris at the start in what proved to be detrimental for the rest of the McLaren driver’s race.
Two stop theoretically doable
Pirelli boss Mario Isola discussed the potential strategies available after qualifying. “The Medium (C4) has proved to be the most versatile compound this weekend and starting on it opens up a couple of options at least,” said the Italian.
“If drivers can extend their first stint to a window between laps 42 and 48, they could fit Softs to go to the flag. On the other hand, if the C4 performance drop is too high, a switch to the Hard compound between laps 26 and 32 is possible.
“Starting on the Soft could give an initial advantage in terms of grip, but the heavy fuel load would require the driver to manage their race pace. Finally, in theory, one can also look at a two-stop strategy, running Soft-Medium-Soft, which produces a similar overall race time to the one-stop.
Whilst in theory the two stop is as quick and less risky should tyre degradation be higher than the teams expect, most drivers will opt for a conservative approach. Saving their tyres and trying to get him with just one stop.
Norris pole in Mexico whilst investigations against F1 team launched
Pole not the same advantage in Mexico
Pole is not the advantage here it is elsewhere with just four of the previous nine Grand Prix won from P1. Two of those were when Mercedes was uber dominant in 2015/16 and P3 and P2 have delivered five winners between them. Charles Leclerc for once rued being quicker than his team mate Lewis Hamilton who starts third.
“The run to turn one is very long and we’ve got to do the best possible start,” Leclerc told reporters. “I wish I was P3 for the start because at least you have a little bit of a slipstream. I probably won’t have any slipstream in front of me and [I’m] starting on the dirty side of the track. But I will focus on what I can control and try to do my best from where we start, which hopefully will be enough to take the lead into turn one.”
Last year, Max Verstappen took the lead from P2 at the start although it was pole sitter Carlos Sainz who went on to win. In three of the previous four Grand Prix, it was the driver starting in third who went on to win.
Hamilton start’s third today and is therefore best positioned on the clean side of the track to outdrag Lando Norris. Given last time out he claimed the unwanted record of being the Ferrari driver who since joining the team has gone the longest before a podium finish. It would be a sweet irony if after the nightmare of 2025, it was Hamilton to claim the first Ferrari win of the season.
Piastri mystery leads to conspiracy theories
One race after the summer break, Oscar Piastri was on top of the Formula One world. He had broken the resistance of the current world champion and his team mate’s DNF in Zandvoort left him an almost unassailable 34 points clear of Lando Norris.
Given that McLaren had won twelve of the first fifteen Grand Prix, it was expected this form would continue with both drivers trading 1-2’s to the end of the season,. Meaning without a DNF for Piastri it would be the Australian who claimed his maiden F1 drivers’ championship.
Just four races later and the wheels have fallen from Oscar’s racing wagon. Crashes and false starts in Baku began his demise then in Singapore he was dominated by his team mate and failed to make the podium…. READ MORE
A.J. Hunt is Senior Editor at TJ13, where Andrew oversees editorial standards and contributes to the site’s Formula 1 coverage. A career journalist with experience in both print and digital sports media, Andrew trained in investigative journalism and has written for a range of European sports outlets.
At TJ13, Andrew plays a central role in shaping the site’s output, working across breaking news, analysis, and long-form features. Andrew’s responsibilities include fact-checking, refining editorial structure, and ensuring consistency in reporting across a fast-moving news cycle.
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