F1 Mexico GP live commentary and updates - qualifying

Lewis Hamilton, P3 in Mexico GP quali: "I'm really happy, I'm honoured to be up here with Charles and Lando, these guys have been so quick all year - and it's the first time I've been up in the top three all year. Thank you for the team for being able to push! It's obviously hard to beat these guys today, but P3 is the perfect spot at this track, so I'm hoping to make the most of that."

Charles Leclerc, P2 in Mexico GP quali: "This qualifying is very difficult, because there's very little grip. It's very tricky but I'm pretty happy with the job we've done. I don't think there was that much more in the car. It would mean a lot to win, so we'll work to get first place into the first corner."

Lando Norris on taking pole: "I'm happy to be back on pole, it's been a long time! The lap...I don't know. It's one of those laps where you don't know what happened - it felt decent, but when I saw it was a 15.5, I was surprised. I've had some good races here in the past, and I'll just focus on what I can control.

"I'm here to win. I'll be looking forward, I have some quick guys behind me and there's some quick guys behind me. I'm not expecting it to be easy!"

Piastri will move up to seventh on tomorrow's grid - Sainz will take a five-place grid penalty for his contact with Antonelli in Austin.

Q3 order

1. Norris
2. Leclerc
3. Hamilton
4. Russell
5. Verstappen
6. Antonelli
7. Sainz
8. Piastri
9. Hadjar
10. Bearman

Norris takes pole for the Mexico City GP

That's a statement lap from Norris, he found six tenths over his previous tour. "What a lap," he says. He's happy with that one.

Leclerc also put together a stellar Q3 to bag a front-row start - Hamilton from Russell on row two. Verstappen dropped to fifth after those late laps from the Ferrari duo and Russell.

Bearman has a 27.2 as his opening sector - 27.1 for Piastri, 27.0 for Verstappen.

How's Bearman's lap? Fifth fastest for now, now sixth as Piastri goes third. Verstappen hurls his car up to second, as Sainz goes fourth.

Piastri hits the road behind Bearman, followed by Sainz, Hadjar, and now Norris. 

Here comes the final flurry.

Antonelli, Sainz, Hadjar, and Bearman all had used tyres. It's still very much game on here as we await the final runs of the session.

Opening Q3 runs

1. Leclerc
2. Norris
3. Hamilton
4. Verstappen
5. Piastri
6. Russell
7. Antonelli
8. Sainz
9. Hadjar
10. Bearman

Great lap by Leclerc - 0.179s up on Norris there. Where's that pace come from?

Norris, Verstappen, Piastri, Bearman, and Sainz are our early takers for a lap - Hadjar just behind them.

Less traffic this time around, now that we've whittled down the bottom 10 on the grid. 

Top 10 in Q2

Here's the 10 drivers who progress into Q3:

Norris
Hamilton
Russell
Verstappen
Sainz
Leclerc
Piastri
Antonelli
Bearman
Hadjar

Sainz goes up to fifth. Piastri is on the cusp - he's 0.008s of new borderline-man Ocon. Alonso only gets up to 13th, and he's out.

Verstappen gets a tow from Tsunoda in the first sector, and goes up to second with his run - although still 0.353s on Norris' Q2 opener. 

Ocon hits sixth place, before Bearman takes fifth as he cuts close to the pit wall to finish his lap.

Hamilton then goes up to second. Antonelli now goes sixth to push Tsunoda into the bottom five. Russell now goes third.

Hadjar hits fourth place to move ahead of Verstappen. Lawson bails on his lap, so he's still time-less at the moment.

Meanwhile, there's the pitlane queue for the final set of runs. Verstappen and Hulkenberg hit the track first. 

Piastri says that there were some inconsistencies from his powertrain in Turn 5. 

The Australian used the tyres he'd aborted a lap on during Q2, so he'll get fresh ones for his second run.

Lawson's out again for a lap, having not set a time yet. 

Hamilton only goes behind Hulkenberg on that first lap, but he's on used tyres. Verstappen sets a 1m16.824s to go top, but Leclerc gazumps him by 0.166s. New tyres for both there.

Hadjar opens with a 1m17.137s, which is about 0.4s down on his Q1 best. Hamilton betters the Frenchman's first sector as he goes on a lap.

Hulkenberg posts a 1m17.016s to go quickest for now.

Q1 headliner Hadjar hits the road, as does Lawson, and they're joined by Alonso, Hulkenberg, and Hamilton.

"The brakes aren't working at all," Albon reported on his in-lap - he had about 84 lock-ups in FP3, so that's clearly not been fixed.

Q2 coming up shortly.

That was all-action, wasn't it? Hadjar quickest with a 1m16.733s over Hamilton and Russell - Norris did go out again, but returned to the pits to save his tyres as he was declared safe. 

Antonelli got in to Q2 as Albon couldn't improve - the Italian was only 0.558s off Hadjar, which rather demonstrates how close Q1 was.

Gasly only goes 17th - that's it for him as he can't get another lap in. Bortoleto is 14th - really on the cusp here as Hulkenberg pushes his team-mate into 15th.

Ocon goes up to third, before Russell goes second.

Hamilton gets up to second in turn. Colapinto can't pull himself out of P20 so he's out - as is Bortoleto, as Alonso puts him out.

It's all action as teams do push-cool-cool-push laps. Antonelli's quicker than Hadjar in the first sector, but loses time in the middle sector. He's got himself up to 12th, which might not be enough, as Sainz goes up to eighth.

Hadjar jumps from 15th to top spot, doing a 1m16.733s - Lawson, meanwhile, goes up to third. 0.228s off his team-mate.

Verstappen's back out on the road, and goes two tenths up on Hadjar's effort in the first sector. But he loses almost four tenths in the middle sector, which only puts him fifth. 0.343s off Hadjar. Tsunoda goes ninth.

Q1 elimination zone with 5 minutes to go

Albon goes up to thirteenth - so the drop zone looks like this:

16. Gasly
17. Tsunoda
18. Colapinto
19. Hulkenberg
20. Stroll

The whole field is currently all within a second of Norris. Bortoleto does a clean lap this time to go 11th. Albon's going again as he's in the drop zone. We'll assess the men in the danger zone after he finishes this tour.

Stroll has another crack to go 13th - while Bearman fires to the top of the order with a 1m17.106s - a smidgen quicker than Norris. Alonso then goes eighth.

Bearman was rapid in free practice two, so his pace looks legitimate.

Verstappen had a bit of a moment - a snap at Turn 9 - in the middle sector, but recovers some speed in the final sector to go third behind Leclerc. 

Sainz goes up to fourth, while Antonelli goes sixth. Russell is last to do a time, and goes second fastest with a purple final sector.

Lawson does a purple third sector to go third, and Hadjar is a tenth off his team-mate. Piastri reports DRS issues, which can explain some of his lap delta.

Bortoleto went over the line at Turn 12 and had his lap deleted for track limits.