Lando Norris beamed with pleasure on Saturday after turbo-charging his bid for the Formula One drivers' world championship by grabbing pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix while rivals struggled in his wake.
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The 25-year-old Briton, who is 14 points behind his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri and 26 ahead of third-placed four-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull, powered to a stunning fastest lap in one minute and 15.586 seconds.
It carried him 0.262 seconds clear of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, who was three-tenths adrift. Mercedes' George Russell was fourth and Verstappen fifth while Piastri struggled to qualify eighth.
"I'm here to win and I am looking forward to it," said Norris, who showed a mental edge and performance to give him confidence after several weeks of pressure.
"I know I have some very quick guys behind me and it's a long run to Turn One, but I'm focused.
"I've not been sleeping well lately so that's maybe the key to everything. I've had good races here in the past, so I'm just focusing on what I can control and that's all I can do."
Norris drove with a freedom that was in contrast to the pressurised Piastri, who was unable to match his teammate’s pace at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
"I'm happy to be back on pole," said Norris. "It has actually been quite a long time, so it's a good feeling. My lap was one those laps where you don't really know what happened. It felt decent, but when I crossed the line 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 of Q3, but I pulled it out when it mattered and I'm happy because of that."
'EXPECTING A BATTLE'
It is his first pole in Mexico, his fifth of the season and the 14th of his career, as well as his first since the Belgian Grand Prix in July. For McLaren, it is a first Mexico pole since Gerhard Berger in 1990.
Looking ahead to the race, Norris added: "The race pace from the Ferraris is usually very strong, so I'm expecting a battle and I'm not expecting it to be easy.
"Eyes forward. And I will see how much I can win by."
His teammate Piastri, who had a 39-point lead at the end of August, was downcast.
"I will try my best," he said. "It is an opportunity to make some progress forwards.
"Everything feels OK, but there's just no pace, which is a bit of a mystery. It has been more or less the same gap all weekend.
"We'll have a look at where I was going wrong and I would say it's all a bit frustrating. This week and last weekend the car has felt like the pace hasn't come. I'm not 100 per cent sure why and we need to do some digging."