Photo: Race Pictures

Norris satisfied with Mexico pole, Hamilton savours 'best grid slot'

00:20, 26 Oct

Updated: 01:09, 26 Oct

1 Comments

byKada Sarkozi

Lando Norris will close to the two Ferraris and not his championship rivals in Mexico City on Sunday.

"I'm here to win."

- Lando Norris

The British driver was on fine form in Mexico, defeating his closest rival Charles Leclerc by around two and a half tenths at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

The Briton said immediately after jumping out of his car: "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.

"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?

Looking ahead to Sunday's Grand Prix, he added: "I've had some good races here in the past and will focus on what I can control. That's all I can do.

"I'm here to win. It's a long run down to Turn 1 and so forth. The race pace from the Ferraris is normally very strong. I'm expecting a battle, I'm not expecting it to be easy. Eyes forward and I'll see how much I can win by," the McLaren driver concluded.

Leclerc was on provisional pole in Mexico, but finished second - Photo: Race Pictures

Ferrari drivers aim to claim special first victory

The Ferrari drivers were also satisfied after qualifying. Leclerc was on provisional pole after the first flying laps, but the Monegasque driver eventually finished second.

He commented: "This qualifying is very, very difficult because there is very little grip, so the car is sliding a lot. In order to put everything together it's very tricky.

"But I'm pretty happy with the job we've done. I don't think there was much more in the car, there was a bit here and there as always in qualifying, but very happy with today's performance.

"It would mean a lot [to win]. So we will do everything to get the first place into the first corner and then see what's possible."

Hamilton, chasing his first podium of the season, concluded: "This is the first time we've both been in the top three in Qualifying this year and the team truly deserves 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."

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