Title rivals Max Verstappen and Lando Norris will start Sunday’s Mexico City Grand Prix from second and third on the grid behind Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.
Verstappen trails Norris by 57 points in the race, having to average just under 12 points per race over the Red Bull driver to overtake him in the remaining five grands prix.
Norris qualified his McLaren just 0.089 seconds slower than Verstappen, but Sainz was in a league of his own, 0.225 seconds clear of the Dutchman, to underline Ferrari’s upturn in form over the past few races.
The second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc, the dominant winner of last weekend’s United States Grand Prix, starts from fourth place, ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.
The top four are focused on the race to the first corner, the longest of the season, at which point powerful slipstream effects can give an advantage to the drivers second and third on the grid.
The winner of this race has come from third on the grid – Norris’ position – in three of the last four races.
Sainz, who won his first pole since Singapore 2023 and for whom both laps in final qualifying were good enough to start at the front, said: “Probably the hardest thing was running into turn one and starting on pole with the slipstream. It will happen, no?
“I just need to make sure I have a good 0-100km/h run, which is the most important thing when you start on pole, just make sure you get a good jump. And from there obviously I’ll do my best to defend.
“I have two guys behind me fighting for some pretty important stuff and it should be interesting going into turn one. In that sense, I obviously have less to lose.
To boost his title hopes, Norris needs to win races and hope Ferrari finishes between him and Verstappen.
But the Briton fears Ferrari’s pace – Leclerc has taken two wins and a second win in the last four races.
Norris said: “The last few weekends, they’ve been a lot faster and faster than us, so it’s like… I don’t have the confidence to say, yes, we can beat them on pace. Like today, their level But no.
“Obviously my car didn’t have about 0.3 seconds left. So it was more that they just went faster. I was at the limit.”