MEXICO CITY -- Lando Norris will start from pole position for Formula One's 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix, as he blew away his championship rivals to take his fifth pole position this season. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc will join the McLaren driver on the front row, with Lewis Hamilton set to start third in the other Ferrari, while Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri are a much further back.

Verstappen qualified down in fifth around a Ferrari surge, while Piastri could only finish eighth. Only 40 points cover the top three in the championship standings, after Verstappen rapidly closed the gap to long-time leader Piastri. And Norris has been making crucial gains on his McLaren teammate.

Piastri struggled last time out in Austin. And the Australian driver hasn't seemed to be able to find a rhythm in the low-grip Mexico City conditions either, starkly contrasting his strong performances from earlier this season.

But there is more to play for here other than the drivers' championship. McLaren may have secured the 2025 constructors' title in Singapore earlier this month, but Ferrari and Mercedes are in a tight battle for second in the championship, with crucial prize money at stake. Ferrari's performance has been less consistent than Mercedes', but Leclerc qualifying second and Hamilton third puts it in a prime position to continue closing what is currently just a seven point gap to Mercedes ahead.

Leclerc's one-lap pace looked rapid on Saturday and he held provisional pole position, before Norris came around on his second and final Q3 run to claim pole with a 1:15.586-second lap, which was a hefty 0.262-seconds faster than Leclerc in what had previous been predicted to be a very close qualifying session.

But a key thing remember come Sunday is that Carlos Sainz, who qualified seventh, has a five-place grid penalty due to his crash with Kimi Antonelli during the United States Grand Prix last weekend. This means Piastri will start a position higher than where he qualified, though he will still on the fourth row. Verstappen's path to gain more points on both McLaren drivers is made harder by George Russell slotting in alongside Hamilton, as the Mercedes driver took fourth with a late Q3 flying lap.

One of the many storylines discussed throughout the weekend so far is the case of the Red Bull family and how it allocates its remaining 2026 seats.

Isack Hadjar advanced to Q3, where he finished ninth. He got through with the 10th fastest time in Q2 and Hadjar, who led Q1 for Racing Bulls, looks to be a favorite to complete the Red Bull line up alongside Verstappen, considering his strong performances this season. These include taking his maiden F1 podium in his rookie season. But where Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson rank is a bit murkier. And it doesn't help that both were knocked out in Q2, qualifying 11th and 15th respectively. Hadjar went 0.012 seconds quicker than Tsunoda in the end.

Ahead of the race weekend, Lawson was asked whether he felt he's done enough to stay at Racing Bulls next year. He responded: "We're not perfect - I'm definitely not perfect - and for sure there's things over a season that I'll look back on and learn from mainly. But I think that's the main thing - as long as I look back on those mistakes and I learn from them and try not to do them again, that's the most important thing.

"So I think from that side, yes, I feel like I've done everything that I can, and I'll continue doing that."

Tsunoda was asked a similar question will sitting alongside Lawson in the FIA news conference on Thursday. Regarding staying at Red Bull, he said: "I'm confident in what I've done and the situation I'm in." He noted how it is the team's decision but feels he's "improved a lot of things, and I also keep improving myself to deserve... that I can be in the same team next year."

These seats are decided based on performance. In the much faster Red Bull, Tsunoda outqualified Lawson this weekend, but couldn't progress to Q3 with Hadjar, while Esteban Ocon, Nico Hülkenberg and Fernando Alonso were the other fallers in Q2.

But the bigger challenge -- and spotlight -- will for the non-Verstappen Red Bull drivers will be on race day. It's unknown when the two teams will announce their 2026 driver lineups, and the season is rapidly coming to a close, with just five grands prix and two sprint races remaining.

Antonelli escaped Q1 by the skin of his teeth, after Williams' Alex Albon couldn't improve on the session's final flying lap. Williams didn't anticipate a particularly strong weekend here, but Albon hasn't quite looked comfortable in the car throughout the event By comparison, Sainz was around three-tenths of a second quicker than his teammate, setting the 11th fastest lap of Q1. This is the fourth time in a row Albon has been knocked out in Q1.

Antonelli's performance also comes as a bit of a surprise, given he went third fastest in FP2 and was seventh quickest in FP3. Antonelli ended up with a 0.121-second gap over Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto, who was knocked out in 16th -- one spot above Albon.

Meanwhile, Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto qualified 18th and 20th. This comes after Alpine's team orders debacle in the United States GP last weekend, when they were told to hold position before Colapinto decided to attack and pass Gasly. Alpine has clearly have been struggling with car performance, and it doesn't look like it will be able to escape the difficult stretch any time soon.

Lando Norris sweeps to commanding Mexico GP F1 pole, Verstappen and Piastri struggle