Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz took pole position at the Mexico City Grand Prix, beating championship rivals Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.

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

The Spaniard finished 0.225 seconds faster than Verstappen, while Norris was only 0.089 seconds behind.

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

Norris starts the race 57 points behind Verstappen, with 146 points still available in the remaining five races.

Third, it’s not ideal for a driver who needs to average 12 points per race for the rest of the season to win the championship.

However, Mexico has one of the longest runs to the first corner of any circuit in F1 and sometimes starting from the back can be an advantage due to the strong airflow effect.

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

Norris said: “To be honest I was pretty happy with third place. I feel like I got to the limits of the car pretty quickly, which made us look pretty good, but I struggled to get more out of it.

“None of us have done proper long runs with the tires we will use tomorrow, but Ferrari was very fast in qualifying and long runs, so it will be difficult.”

Both Norris and Verstappen faced more pressure than usual entering the final laps as neither had a good lap time.

Verstappen’s first lap was deleted for exceeding track limits and Norris’s was considerably slower.

Verstappen, who lost almost all of Friday with an engine problem, said: “I hardly did any laps yesterday, so I was already under a lot of pressure and this just added to the pressure a little bit more.”

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

Sainz said: “A great few laps. In Mexico you often feel like you can’t complete a lap and it’s extremely difficult because there’s so much slippage. But my two laps were almost the same, almost perfect.

“Since Austin, especially from my perspective, we have taken a step forward, and in qualifying we tried to find something different with the extraordinary lap and tire preparation. I am looking forward to finishing the job tomorrow, but I will take the pole position. I am very happy.”

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