LANDO NORRIS showed he means business in the title fight as he bagged pole position in Mexico City.
Meanwhile it was a woeful afternoon for his teammate Oscar Piastri who will start the race all the way down in eighth.
Ferrari toasted a successful afternoon, with Charles Leclerc in P2 while Lewis Hamilton bagged third – his best qualifying result of the season.
Leclerc was up for it throughout, giving Norris a run for his money with a blistering lap to secure provisional pole in Q3.
But Norris hit back with a stunning final lap to secure the top spot, as Max Verstappen came in fifth.
Leclerc’s provisional pole had been a whopping seven tenths quicker than his best Q2 time and almost two tenths faster than Norris.
Speaking after sealing pole position, Norris admitted his struggles have been affecting his sleep.
He said: “I’m here to win. I’m expecting a battle.
“I’m happy to be back on pole. It’s actually been quite a long time, so it’s a good feeling.
“The lap was one of those where you don’t really know what happened. It felt decent but when I saw the time I was very pleasantly surprised.
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“I’ve been feeling good all weekend, especially today. I got a little bit nervous of the Ferrari at the end, but I pulled it out when it mattered and I’m very happy.
“I’ve not been sleeping well lately so maybe that’s the key to it all?
“I’ve had some good races here in the past and will focus on what I can control. That’s all I can do.”
Meanwhile, his team-mate Hamilton moved up to third, almost four tenths off that jaw-dropping time from Leclerc.
The Ferrari driver was pleased that both himself and his team-mate could snap up the remaining spots in the top three.
He said: “This is the first time we’ve both [Hamilton and Leclerc] been in the top three in Qualifying this year and the team truly deserve it.
“We are just working as hard as we can. We’ve not really moved the car forward necessarily in development, but we’ve extracted more from it and the processes are better.
“P3 is kind of the perfect spot at this track, so I’m hoping I can make the most of that.
“Our race pace is not too bad. It’s difficult to know, but we’ll try and give it a good race.”
It was an afternoon to forget again for Piastri who snuck through to the final session without any frills, crossing the line in seventh place to knock Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda out.
The Aussie was only safe by less than a tenth of a second despite now being on fresher tyres and with the track continuing to ramp up.
More concerningly for him, he lagged a full half second behind team-mate Norris’ pacesetting time and it was a warning sign for what was to come.
Verstappen couldn’t get close to Norris in the first two sessions and crossed the line more than three tenths behind his title rival in Q2.
Norris made a statement from the second session, uncorking a lap time with a ONE SECOND gap to Piastri’s initial effort, albeit on fresher tyres.
The Brit is just 14 points behind his McLaren rival in the standings, with Verstappen a further 26 points back with five races remaining.
