Lando Norris was left with mixed emotions after qualifying P6 at the 2026 F1 Mexico City GP, having been unable to replicate his impressive Q2 pace in the final segment.
Norris had shown flashes of front-running pace throughout the weekend, finishing P2 in FP2 before topping the timesheets in FP3. In qualifying, the Briton progressed through Q1 before producing his best lap in Q2 with a 1:16.728. However, he couldn’t repeat that performance in Q3, eventually setting a lap 0.096s slower than his Q2 benchmark to take P6.
Meanwhile, McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri suffered an even more frustrating session, exiting in Q2 after failing to make the top ten for the first time in over two years. The Australian will line up P12 in Sunday’s race.
Norris takes positives from P6 Mexico City qualifying result
Speaking in the print media pen after qualifying, Norris rejected the suggestion that his Q3 performance had slipped away from him, instead describing his final effort as “pretty phenomenal” given McLaren’s recent struggles.
“No, I don’t think anything slipped away, I think just the lap I did was pretty phenomenal in the car that we have. I think it shows, you know, with where Oscar is and the struggles we’ve been having, how difficult it is to put just a lap together in this car, so I’m pretty happy with the P6 honestly.
“You never really know what you’re going to get and after I did a good lap in Q2 I knew I was screwed for Q3 because the chance of me repeating that lap is impossible, so it’s just we’re too slow. Every now and then I can put a magical lap together and everyone has a bit of hope, which is not a good thing because then we see the reality in Q3 once again.”
Despite securing three pole positions and two victories so far this season, Norris has experienced some inconsistent results in recent rounds. In Austin, he qualified P8 before recovering to P5 in the race.
Asked whether the car difficulties he was experiencing now were similar to those in Austin, Norris said:
“It’s the same as all year. We’re just not quick enough, the car’s too difficult to drive, maybe one in 50 I can put together and everyone says oh you got a good car but then it’s not true.”
Where McLaren lost time
The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríquez often brings extra challenges for drivers with its dusty surface and high altitude. For Norris, however, the track conditions were not the main concern:
“I wouldn’t say it is, I mean the braking is a little bit trickier than normal, braking into one and braking into four, especially one because of the bumps. Otherwise it’s not, especially on the new tarmac it’s incredibly grippy so it feels better than half the tracks we go to.”
Instead, the reigning World Champion highlighted McLaren’s lack of pace through his Q3 runs, particularly in the opening sector.
“Every corner, just look at the GPS, you’ll see how bad we are in sector 1, turn 1, turn 2, turn 3, it’s like two tenths every single lap. If you’re two tenths off in the first three corners it’s impossible that you think we can even be close to the rest of the lap so I think the only corner I’m good at is turn 7. That’s it.”
Norris: “It baffles me how we can be quick sometimes”
Discussing how tough it has been to consistently deliver strong laps with the MCL40, Norris explained that the car behaves very differently from one lap to the next, making it hard to know when he can put everything together.
“I mean you just always have to keep trying, like you never know when things are just going to suddenly go your way, like my Q2 lap I just had an amazing headwind in turn 12, I gained one and a half tenths just because the car gripped. The next lap I try and go the same speed in, I lose the rear, I lose a tenth, so I got a two and a half tenths delta to my previous.
“It’s just, it’s too difficult, especially when I look at the onboards from others, it’s just, yeah, it baffles me how we can be quick sometimes, but you know it always feels like there’s a little bit of hope which is in it also, as much as it wasn’t a good thing, it’s a good thing at the same time that the speed can be there if things just somehow come together but you never know when they’re going to come together,” he concluded.
