A tantalising prospect – but can Norris now take advantage?

Lando Norris will lead the world championship for the first time in six months if the race ends in the manner of qualifying.

Prior to the race, Norris, who is a McLaren driver, was 14 points clear of his team-mate Oscar Piastri, but the Australian is a distant second.

With only five grands prix remaining after this one, the reward for one of the qualifying laps of the season might be a significant declaration of intent.

Max Verstappen’s remarkable run of form at Red Bull was the subject of all the discussion when he arrived in Mexico.

In his previous four races, the Dutchman had collected three victories and a second, reducing his deficit to just 40 points from 104 points.

Verstappen also had a challenging weekend, with his seemingly unstoppable momentum stalled by a bizarre lack of grip, like Piastri.

Piastri would need to move up to fourth from his grid position if Norris wins the race to maintain even a slim lead. When the Australians have struggled this weekend, it’s not easy to get through.

But Norris is not taking anything for granted because he is aware that George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, and Charles Leclerc of Ferrari are immediately in danger, so he can take risks in a more extreme way.

Verstappen and Piastri, you’re talking about two of the best drivers on the grid, according to Norris, who was speaking with Leclerc and Hamilton at the post-race news conference. You can never, in my opinion, get past them and come back through.

Our race pace has always been very high this season, so I’m still hoping Oscar will come back strong and compete well. He does it frequently. So, let’s see. That’s what I’m hoping for.

“And the same with Max,” he said, “when has he ever come forward and not been on the attack?”

With what he called “an incredible lap,” Norris moved to the top of the grid.

Leclerc’s lap was so impressive that when Norris finished his final run, even though he knew it had been good, he immediately thought, “If I’d get ahead of Charles, I’d be pretty happy. “

For his first pole position since Belgium in late July, he had actually won by a respectable 0. 222 seconds.

Norris continued, “When I saw [one minute] 15.5 on my dash, it put a pretty big smile on my face because it was… everything just came together in terms of feeling.”

“To take pole in Monaco was very natural and similar to my lap. A good feeling because it’s been awhile. Even with how quickly it moves, I don’t get that feeling in this car all that often this year.

The car is “extremely quick,” but it’s not simple to drive. When we both complained about that as drivers, it “flys” when you just get into that little rhythm, which is where I am today.

The drivers starting in the second and third corners can benefit from the nearly 800-meter run from the grid to the first corner.

Leclerc and Hamilton both declared they would be “aggressive” into the first corner, despite Hamilton’s best grand prix qualifying performance of his first season at Ferrari. Something about which Norris is aware that he needs to be cautious.

Meanwhile, Piastri had a rather depressing figure cut. He believed he had found the solution after a challenging weekend in the US last week. However, as he put it, “The gap has just been the same pretty much every session,” which is what has been a little surprising.

“Over the course of the weekend, I feel like I did some respectable laps, but everything seems to be going about 0 – 0 secs off.”

Andrea Stella, the team’s principal, said Piastri was losing a little bit everywhere, and he responded, “I think I did a good job and the car felt good as well.” Yes, the lack of lap time is a little mysterious.

It is more likely that Piastri will have some fun if he can unlock the pace in the car because he has been off Norris’ pace on short runs or long runs, low fuel or high runs. We just need to make an effort to unlock it.

Since winning in the Netherlands at the end of August, Piastri has now had his fifth difficult weekend in a row. His form has mysteriously vanished.

There was no hiding the meaning behind one of his statements, which he did not directly address regarding what this might mean for the championship: “There are many things I could worry about, but being so far away when you feel like you’ve done a reasonable job is a difficult place to be.” And so I’m currently concerned about that.

Stella asserted that the conditions in Mexico, similar to those in Austin, favor Norris and Piastri, who has hot tyres and low grip, are both favorable.

And he claimed that “every piece of evidence, every piece of data, every indirect measurement of information we have, tells us that the car has no problems.”

Verstappen, who has struggled all weekend, shared Piastri’s concerns, with his Red Bull no longer resemblening the fear McLaren had experienced in its previous four races.

He claimed that it has simply been very challenging. We’ve tried a lot of things,” he said. Although it’s not because of the lack of effort, it’s still not great.

Simply put, it slides because there is no grip and traction when you turn and traction when you traction.

Red Bull made a floor for this weekend, their second of four races, following the one in Monza, which was a component of a package of chanciness that altered the car’s pace.

Verstappen acknowledged that the team would need to consider “if that was what was wrong.” He also pointed out that despite winning five games there, he also wasn’t as competitive there last year.

His pessimism is reflected in his race expectations, saying, “It’s going to be challenging. We don’t have that on tires, but you need a good balance on them.

The Ferraris are likely to be Norris’ biggest challenge in the race, as they did in qualifying.

Hamilton and Leclerc both performed quickly over the weekend, and Hamilton recorded their best grid position of the year.

Although it’s a journey, I have grown a lot as a result, Hamilton said, “I can’t believe it has taken me this long to get here.” I want to move forward, and third is not a bad place to start.

neither side believed their step had a significant impact.

Hamilton said, “The team truly deserves it because this is our first qualifying performance this year.” We’re only putting in as much effort as we can.