25/10/2025
NEWS STORY
Ahead of today's qualifying session the air temperature is 26 degrees C while the track temperature is 50 degrees.
Norris was quickest earlier, and while his pace was impressive we must not forget that, lie yesterday, over the next hour the track is going to be constantly evolving.
Nonetheless, being 0.6s up on his teammate and Verstappen is going to be a tremendous boost to his confidence.
Hamilton was second as Ferrari continue to look good, while Russell and Antonelli were very much in the mix.
Drivers continue to struggle for grip however, most notably Verstappen, but he is not alone with Albon twice spoiling his flying laps.
Throw in track limits and traffic and we should be in for an interesting session.
Stroll gets Q1 underway, followed by Alonso, Gasly, Colapinto and Ocon, the Spaniard having missed much of this morning's session with a technical issue.
Stroll posts a benchmark 18.815, however Alonso responds with a 17.936.
Colapinto goes second but is demoted when Bearman goes top with a 17.765.
Bortoleto has his time deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 12.
Norris goes purple in S1, his teammate already 0.4s down. The Briton crosses the line at 17.147, while Piastri goes third with a 17.850, 0.703s down.
Albon goes third and Hamilton fifth as Leclerc makes a mistake at Turn 13. Despite that error the Monegasque posts a 17.285 to go second.
Lawson goes third and Hadjar fourth.
Replay shows Hamilton running wide in Turn 12.
Tsunoda goes fifth as his teammate begins his first flying lap. Verstappen crosses the line at 17.306 to go third as Sainz goes fourth. Verstappen was quickest in S3.
Antonelli goes sixth with a 17.524 but is demoted when his teammate stops the clock at 17.194 to go second.
Quickest in the final two sectors Bearman goes top with a 17.106 as Hamilton says he is struggling with his tyres.
Norris reclaims the top spot with a 16.899.
Piastri goes third (17.158), but is leapfrogged by Leclerc (17.024).
Verstappen gets the final assault underway, as Hadjar goes quickest in S2. The RB driver goes top with a 16.733, while his teammate claims third.
Norris heads out again.
No offence to the RB pair but the track is clearly improving.
Verstappen goes fifth with a 17.076, the world champion still struggling with understeer.
Tsunoda goes ninth as the Mercedes pair head out, Antonelli currently 15th.
Antonelli goes eleventh and Sainz eighth, as Gasly fails to make the cut.
Hulkenberg goes eleventh and Ocon third as Stroll aborts.
Russell goes second, but is demoted by Hamilton.
Alonso goes twelfth as Piastri aborts.
Albon fails to improve on seventeenth, which means Antonelli survives to Q2.
Flavio Briatore is clearly unimpressed as Colapinto goes off and takes a wild, bumpy ride over the kerbs.
Quickest is Hadjar, ahead of Hamilton, Russell, Norris, Ocon, Lawson, Leclerc, Bearman, Verstappen and Piastri... which would make a pretty good grid.
We lose Bortoleto, Albon, Gasly, Stroll and Colapinto.
Hadjar gets Q2 underway, followed by his RB teammate. Eventually, Hulkenberg, Alonso, Hamilton and Verstappen follow.
Hadjar posts a benchmark 17.137, while his teammate opts to pit.
A 17.016 sees Hulkenberg go top as Alonso goes third with a 17.820.
Hamilton goes second but is demoted when Verstappen stops the clock at 16.824.
Leclerc posts a 16.658 to go top as Norris posts purples in S1 and S2. As Sainz goes second (16.758), Norris crosses the line at 16.252.
Piastri goes ninth with a 17.286, but is demoted by Russell (17.137), while Antonelli 14th.
Piastri reports what he thinks is a PU issue in Turn 5.
Lawson, who has yet to post a time, heads out. However, he subsequently aborts again. "Zero grip," he reports.
With 4 minutes remaining there is a significant queue in the pitlane. At the end of the queue is Piastri who will be cutting it mighty close. The Australian is currently tenth.
Verstappen goes second with a 16.505, 0.353s down on Norris.
Beaman goes fifth, Hamilton second and Ocon eighth.
Antonelli goes sixth, Russell third and Sainz fifth.
Leclerc goes sixth, Tsunoda tenth and Alonso thirteenth.
Piastri goes seventh, thereby demoting Tsunoda.
Quickest is Norris, ahead of Hamilton, Russell, Verstappen, Sainz, Leclerc, Piastri, Antonelli, Bearman and Hadjar.
We lose Tsunoda, Ocon, Hulkenberg, Alonso and Lawson.
Check out our Saturday gallery from Mexico City here.
Verstappen is first out of the trap for Q3, he is followed by Bearman, Norris and Piastri. The crowd is clearly up for it.
The world champion crosses the line at 16.455, Bearman posting a 17.420.
Norris goes top with a 16.170 while Piastri goes third, 0.299s off the pace.
Sainz, who has a 5-place grid penalty for his clash with Antonelli in Austin, goes fourth and Hadjar fifth.
Hamilton goes second with a 16.374 but is demoted when his teammate stops the clock at 15.991.
Russell goes sixth and Antonelli seventh.
"Rears were nowhere," reports Russell.
Bearman is first out for the final assault. He is followed by Piastri, Verstappen and Sainz.
Bearman goes fifth with a 16.460 as Piastri improves to third (16.174).
A 16.070 puts Verstappen second, but Norris responds with a 15.586 to go top.
Hamilton goes second but is demoted when Leclerc claims second with a 15.848.
Russell goes fourth and Antonelli sixth, thereby demoting Piastri to eighth.
So, Norris qualifies on pole, ahead of Leclerc, Hamilton, Russell, Verstappen, Antonelli, Sainz, Piastri, Hadjar and Bearman.
Tsunoda qualifies eleventh, ahead of Ocon, Hulkenberg, Alonso, Lawson, Bortoleto, Albon, Gasly, Stroll and Colapinto.
"I'm honoured to be up here with Charles and Lando," says Hamilton following his best qualifying result of the season thus far, "these guys have been so quick this year.
"P3 is the perfect spot at this track," he adds, "so I'm hoping I can make the most of that at the start."
"This qualifying is very difficult," admits Lecelrc, "there is very little grip, so the car is sliding a lot.
"I'm happy with the job we have done, I don't think there was a lot more in the car."
"I'm happy to be back on pole," says Norris, "it has actually been quite a long time.
"It was one of those laps you don't know what's happening," he continues, "I knew it was decent but when I crossed the line I was pleasantly surprised.
"I've had some good races here in the past, so I'll focus on what I can control."
An entertaining session, but one which begs the question what on earth has happened to Piastri?
Verstappen's fifth doesn't surprise because he is clearly unhappy with the car here, but at least he's continued to show glimpses of his amazing talent.
On the other hand Piastri appears to have completely lost his way, indeed it's almost as if someone else is driving the car.
Now, far be it from us to start conspiracy theories but we do not accept this loss of form at face value, something is clearly wrong.
Told he has qualified eighth, but will start seventh due to Sainz' penalty, there is absolutely no response from the Australian.
No offence to Lando or Max, but we cannot help but feel that string are being pulled, after all, having visited the podium 14 times in the first 18 races, had this continued he would have been pretty close to securing the title by now, which would be a disaster for viewing figures.
All those podiums, all those wins and suddenly he's essentially picking up scraps... Nah! We don't believe it.
Check out our Saturday gallery from Mexico City here.