Lando Norris secured pole position for the F1 Mexico City GP with a time of 1:15.586, ahead of a Ferrari 2–3 finish led by Charles Leclerc in the Qualifying session. Championship rival and teammate Oscar Piastri qualified eighth, but will move up to seventh on the grid for Sunday’s race due to Carlos Sainz’s five-place grid penalty carried over from Austin last weekend.
Purple sectors all round for the pole position lap
Lando Norris’ pole position at the F1 Mexico City GP Qualifying session marked the 14th of his career and McLaren’s first in Mexico City since 1990. It also brought his 2025 total to five poles, drawing him level with teammate Oscar Piastri. Norris delivered a monster lap, going purple in all three sectors to emphatically secure pole position at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
“Yeah. Thank you. I mean, I’m happy to be back on pole,” he said in regards to his superb flying lap.
“It’s actually been quite a long time, so a good feeling. The lap—I don’t know. It was one of those laps where you don’t really know what happened. It felt decent, but then when I crossed the line and saw a 15.5, I was very pleasantly surprised. So I’ve been feeling good all weekend, especially from today. Like FP3, Q1, Q2, Q3. I got a little bit nervous with the Ferrari in Q3 at the end, but I pulled it out when I needed, and I’m happy because of that.
First time on pole since the Belgian GP
The last time Lando Norris started from pole in 2025 was back at the Belgian Grand Prix, where pole position can often be a disadvantage due to the long, flat-out run into Turn 1, a section notorious for first-lap chaos.
This weekend in Mexico City presents a similar challenge, with the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez featuring the longest run down to Turn 1 on the entire calendar. When asked how much sleep he might lose thinking about the potential scenarios at the start of Sunday’s race, Norris admitted it isn’t something he is used to, adding that he has good races at the circuit in the past.
“Not a lot. I mean, I haven’t been sleeping well lately, so maybe that’s the key to it all. But I won’t. You know, I’ve had some good races here in the past, so I’ll just focus on what I can control, and that’s all I can do.”
Eyes on the win
Norris will start from the front row tomorrow, with Charles Leclerc lining up alongside him. Championship rivals Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri will have more work to do, starting further down for the F1 Mexico City GP in P5 and P7 (after Carlos Sainz’s grid penalty), giving Norris a potential upper hand heading into Sunday’s race.
Not ruling out the pace of the Ferraris, Norris acknowledged it won’t be an easy run to Turn 1 or beyond, but the Briton remains focused on his own race, determined to look forward and see just how much he can win by.
“No. I’m here to win. No, 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. And the race pace from the Ferraris is normally very strong. So I’m expecting a battle. I’m not expecting it to be easy. But, no—eyes forward and I’ll see how much I can win by.”
P1️⃣ for Lando! 👏🥇#F1 #MexicoGP pic.twitter.com/BhNw07EVWk
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 25, 2025
Pole lap with a similar feeling to Monaco’s pole
Norris initially appeared confused when his race engineer Will Joseph informed him that he had secured pole position, admitting afterwards that he hadn’t known whether he was up or down on his lap during the run.
“That’s the confusing thing. I mean, obviously it was an incredible lap.” Norris replied, “I pushed the braking everywhere. I pushed the high speed a bit more and all those things. But I don’t have a delta, so I didn’t know if I was up, if I was down, if it was good, bad, whatever. There were a couple of little places where I thought I messed up a touch and didn’t get the best exits, like out of six, but the rest of it felt pretty decent. I was happy, but I thought I’d be more like a 15.9, 15.8.
Likening the feeling of his lap to his Monaco pole, Norris admitted it had been a while since he’d felt that way, but nevertheless, he was delighted with the car’s performance.
I thought if I’d get ahead of Charles, I’d be pretty happy. So when I saw 15.5 on my dash, it put a pretty big smile on my face because it was one of those laps which was — everything just came together in terms of feeling. It was very natural and similar to my lap in Monaco. A good feeling because it’s been a while. It’s not that often this year I get that feeling in this car, even with how quick it is. But yeah, happy because of this.“
Improvement from Run 1 to Run 2
Norris’ first lap in the F1 Mexico City GP Qualifying session was a 1:16.170, but he managed to improve by nearly six tenths to secure pole position. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly where the extra pace came from, admitting that while he took more risks in certain corners, he was ultimately pleasantly surprised by the lap and the result
“Honestly, I don’t know. I have to go and see on the data. Like I said, I just pushed the braking in a few little places a bit more. Took a couple of bits more risk in the high speed. But yeah. Quite often, the laps I do best, I don’t really know what’s happened or how it’s happened. Like I said on the radio to Will and Jarv, the less I know, the better I do normally on my quali laps. So it was one of them. But yeah, six tenths. I was surprised, I got a bit worried Q3 Run 1 when Charles did a 15.9. I was like, “damn, that’s a pretty impressive lap”. So, like I said, nice when I saw 15.5.”
Positive weekend overall so far
Norris missed out on FP1 on Friday, with Pato O’Ward stepping in to complete one of McLaren’s mandatory rookie outings for the season. Despite sitting out the opening session, Norris quickly found his rhythm in FP2, finishing P4 ahead of Piastri, who ended the session down in P12.
He carried that momentum into Saturday’s FP3 session, topping the timesheets and finishing three tenths clear of Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton.
Reflecting on his performance, Norris felt that overall, especially today, he’s been doing a great job, noting that he made no mistakes or lock-ups, which allowed him to build confidence, improve steadily, and get into a strong rhythm.
“I mean, maybe. It’s tough because I do feel like I’m doing a very good job. I feel like I have been for a good amount of weekends now, especially when I get this feeling that I had today. Actually, the whole day today. It’s not just my Q3 lap that was good. FP3 was strong already and a good step better than it was yesterday. Q1, Q2, Q3 — all of my laps were good. No mistakes. No lock-ups. None of these things. And I could just, in a good way, improve. The car is incredibly quick, but it’s not easy to drive. I think we both complained of that as drivers, but when you just get in that little bit of a rhythm, it’s flying, and that’s where I was today.”
Our pole sitter 🤩#McLaren | #MexicoGP 🇲🇽 pic.twitter.com/kLB0XzK0Mw
— McLaren (@McLarenF1) October 25, 2025
Tyre choices for tomorrow’s race
In terms of race strategy, Pirelli has brought the C4 and C5 compounds, medium and soft tyres respectively, for the F1 Mexico City GP, with the C2 acting as the hard option. Friday’s FP1 session indicated less graining than usual on the soft tyres, suggesting that a one-stop strategy could be a viable option for tomorrow’s race. This adds an extra layer of strategy for teams to consider, as tyre management and track position will be crucial in the high-altitude, low-downforce conditions of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
“Potentially. I mean, obviously with the Hard being a step harder, that can change a few things.” Norris said in regards to tyre strategy. “But the race last year was very nice and we were very confident. Our race pace was very strong with the Medium-Hard last year. So yeah, I don’t think we’re too worried about anything. I think the pace has still been decent, even with missing FP1 and just kind of getting that high fuel stuff in FP2. But you never know. Many things can happen around here. It’s a long race. Easy to make mistakes. A lot of overtaking opportunities, that kind of thing — but the pace is there. So as long as I get my head down and focus, then I’ll be fine.
Comparisons to Ferrari
Norris added that the long run into Turn 1 will be reviewed overnight, noting that McLaren are, “in general,” a touch behind Ferrari.
“That’s tonight. 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.”
When asked about the need to “lift and coast” during the race, Norris noted that Ferrari are “pros at it.” In recent races, the Italian team has faced above-average brake wear, forcing their drivers to lift off the throttle and coast more frequently to manage their brakes over the course of the Grand Prix.
“I mean, ask these guys — they’re pros at it. These guys, they do it every race. Yeah, I think you always have to do it a little bit, but never as much as these guys.”
Delta time
Norris revealed that he hasn’t had his delta time displayed on his wheel since Monaco, adding that he hadn’t been referencing it much for his laps. When he did use it, he found himself staring at it too often, which distracted from his rhythm. Without it, he was able to fully push in Qualifying, as demonstrated in his F1 Mexico City GP session, with it being a nice touch when Norris found out he had set a flying pole lap.
“No, I’ve not had it since Monaco. I’ve never used the delta since, in qualifying. So, yeah, I don’t know. Who knows if it would have helped me or made me worse? I think the thing when I don’t have it is, I push no matter what — no matter how the start of the lap was, no matter how any corner was. I guess it’s because you have no reference of maybe the overall lap time, you just always try and maximize every corner to the maximum. And yeah, otherwise sometimes I just stare at it too much, and that’s never the best thing. So yeah, it’s just nice because normally when it goes well, like today, it’s a pleasant surprise to see the lap time pop up when it’s as good as this one.”
McLaren’s step forward for Norris
Norris described his overall feeling from the weekend as “pleasantly surprised.” Earlier this season, he had often felt disconnected from the front of the car and lacked the confidence to go out and put together a lap like he did in Mexico City. He added that by improving the car to better suit his driving style, he has gained additional confidence on track.
“I think, even when I look at my first lap in FP2 — my first lap of the weekend — it’s a track which is not easy because of the downforce and the grip and things like that. High end of straight speed, big braking zones. But my first lap, I was on it. I was, again, pleasantly surprised at how quick I was on the pace compared to everyone — to the others who already did FP1.”
“But certainly, it’s hard to quantify how much the work the team has done behind the scenes to give me a bit more of what I want and what I need in order to perform at the level that I can perform at, which is the level of today and certain other places where we’ve been this season.”
“But it was only a few weekends ago in Singapore where I almost felt like it was the beginning of the season again — no feeling for the front, no confidence, no ability to go out and do what I did today. No confidence to do what I did today. So it’s a little bit up and down still. There’s certainly areas we have to improve. And if I want to be able to do what I did today more often — which I do — we have to improve the car more. And I’ve got to try and make it more to my liking.”
Work he has done away from the track this year
Norris has been very open in recent years about his struggles with mental health and his tendency to be highly self-critical.
However, after the Qualifying session at the F1 Mexico City GP, Norris explained that he has been doing a lot of work off-track, alongside others things, to understand how to “combat” these challenges, emphasising that he doesn’t want to use them as an excuse.
“But there’s certainly a lot of work that I’ve also done personally, away from the track, with my team, with a lot of people to understand what my struggles were, reasoning, all those things, and then how I can combat it. Because the last thing I want is to make the excuse.”
“Like, at the end of the day, it’s my job to drive whatever car I get given, whether it’s a great one or a terrible one. I don’t feel like I should ever have a reason to have an excuse. There’s reasoning for things — why I struggle here, why I’ve struggled there, and so forth — but it’s not an excuse. If I’m slow, I’ll say I’ve just done a bad job, and I wasn’t a good enough driver on that day. And I think I’ve always been open about those things.”
“But yeah, there are clearly things which work for me and things that don’t. I hate that because I hate to have a reason for why sometimes I struggle. I just want to be able to drive whatever car I get given. But certainly, progress has been made. And I’m very happy that the team has worked hard to improve on those things. But we still need to make more if I want to be even better.”
What a Qualifying! 😇
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 25, 2025
Lando Norris secures pole position, with the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton behind him on the grid 👀#F1 #MexicoGP pic.twitter.com/G66l8Oh614
Championship battle
Verstappen is set to start on the third row alongside Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli, with Piastri a row behind him next to Racing Bull Isack Hadjar.
Norris will have a significant advantage starting from P1 after todays F1 Mexico City GP Qualifying session. If Piastri fails to finish P5 or higher and Norris takes the win, he will move into the lead of the Drivers’ Championship.
While Norris expects both Piastri and Verstappen to make their way up the field, he isn’t underestimating the pace of the Ferraris around him. He is hopeful of maintaining his lead at the start and is counting on the others potentially slowing each other down, giving him the opportunity to secure the race victory.
“Well, I think you’re talking about two of — along with these guys here — two of the best drivers on the grid. So I don’t think you can ever put it past them to come back through. From my side, our race pace has always been very strong this season, so I’m still expecting Oscar to come back through and race well. He normally does. So, let’s see. That is my expectation. And same with Max — when has he ever not been on the attack and come forward? Hopefully I can just stay ahead on lap one, and then these guys can hold everyone else up for me.”
