2025 F1 Mexico City Grand Prix Qualifying - As it happened

Just a couple of minutes left of this session and Lando Norris' 1m 16.633s lap looks difficult to beat now -  he has a whole +0.345s in hand over Lewis Hamilton in second

Alex Albon's FP3 session goes from bad to worse as he radios in to report that there is a problem with his engine and he 'has no power' from his Williams. He's currently 17th and been off track more than once this morning

1- Norris

2- Hamilton

3- Piastri

4- Antonelli

5- Leclerc

6- Verstappen

7- Hadjar

8- Russell

9- Tsunoda

10-Bortoleto

Almost simultaneous offs for team-mates Sainz and Albon, the Spaniard at Turn 1 and the Thai at Turn 3 as Williams struggle to get their brakes dialled in

Meanwhile, issues for Fernando Alonso have grounded him in the pit box

It's short-lived for Hamilton as Norris puts a chunky 0.345s between himself and the competition with a 1m 16.633s lap

Slim pickings between most drivers right up until Lewis Hamilton goes quickest by almost three tenths of a second

No purple sectors but Leclerc's combined efforts are good enough to go quickest overall.

For a few seconds anyway, Kimi Antonelli now fastest

Qualifying sims are well underway with Piastri moving top followed by Hadjar, Russell, Tsunoda, Lawson and Stroll

13mins to go

Alex Albon sticks on a new set of soft boots to give us our first representative quali simulation lap... at least, he would have done if he hadn't locked up and run off in the stadium section for the second time in ten minutes.

George Russell becomes the first driver to dip into the 1m 17s as it springs to the top of the timesheets

For now at least though, it is mighty close with just +1.1s covering the entire field - we are a good six tenths down on Friday's benchmarks though

The medium tyres are winning few fans with George Russell adding his two pence to the opinion polls saying they have 'no grip'.

That said, soft or medium, a lot of drivers are having all sorts of problems on the brakes with Alex Albon and Kimi Antonelli the latest to skid wide on fast laps

1- Norris (Medium tyre)

2- Sainz (S)

3- Russell (M)

4- Verstappen (M)

5- Leclerc (M)

6- Tsunoda (M)

7- Albon (S)

8- Hadjar (S)

9- Antonelli (M)

10- Lawson (S)

Norris is back up to speed and goes third quickest, just 0.037s adrift of Sainz and right behind Verstappen.

Piastri, meanwhile, is 12th on his first flying lap

A tell-tale squeak into Turn 3 sees Lando Norris miss his braking point and run wide, the Briton taking it noticeably gingerly thereafter in recovery...

Meanwhile, a few moments later Lewis Hamilton (again) runs even further off at the same corner in sympathy

A soft-shod Carlos Sainz moves to the top, just 0.023s up on Verstappen, while Tsunoda, Lawson and Leclerc complete the top five.

The McLarens are now on track, while we're still waiting for both Mercedes' and the Williams and Alex Albon

Gabriel Bortoleto briefly tops the timesheets before being rudely demoted by Verstappen, Leclerc and Hamilton, the latter going third time lucky with getting round without snatching a brake

Lewis Hamilton would have been next up but he's missed his braking point at Turn 3 and run wide...

No matter, he goes again for another lap... and misses his braking point at Turn 1 this time and goes for a bit of grass-tracking over Turn 2.

Max Verstappen is the first driver to set a representative time - 1m 18.914s if you're interested - in a car with a rear-wing doused in Flo-vis paint.

The early showing and the tell-tale fluorescent yellow suggests Red Bull are still evaluating which direction to go on set-up

Cards were being kept close to chests during the post-Friday practice chatter with Max Verstappen unsure of his pace, Lando Norris feeling 'a bit behind' and Oscar Piastri with some gains to make.

With the top three in the title race not giving much away, perhaps we should be listening to Charles Leclerc, who claimed McLaren were in another league in terms of race pace.

If so, it'll bring some encouragement to a McLaren team that could really do with getting back to winning ways having not done so since Zandvoort in August

The end of the season is fast-approaching and it'll be 2026 before we know it...

Of course, lots of change is incoming - Sauber will morph into Audi as the German giants make their long awaited move into F1, while Cadillac will become the first new team to join F1 outright since Haas.

Then there are the engine supplies - Audi arrives, Honda moves to Aston Martin, Red Bull adopts Ford and Alpine ditches Renault for Mercedes.

As for the drivers, well there are still 4 seats out of 22 up for grabs - one at Red Bull, two at Racing Bulls and one at Alpine.

On the subject of Red Bull, Arvid Lindblad was far and away the most impressive of the prospective rookies that took part in FP1, going sixth fastest.

Paddock speculation suggests he will be in a Racing Bulls in 2026 with Isack Hadjar heading to Red Bull. As for Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda, the future looks uncertain

The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez - is it a road course, is it a street circuit?

The jury is still out but one thing is for sure - it's slap bang in the middle of one of the world's biggest, most populated and dense cities. This alone gives it an identity all of its own, while it probably explains why Mexicans come in their throngs each year, even without hero Sergio Perez present this time.

It's a venue drenched in history and bristles with the soul missing from so many newer venues.

It's not without foibles - it is pancake flat and the infield is fiddly. Plus there is no Peraltada as it was, but it's for a good reason - after all, nobody wants to have a high-speed off and land in someone's back garden.

However, the move to replace it with a fan-packed stadium section was a masterstroke genius, plus it looks great on photos. 

Incidentally, after George Russell's entertaining stunt on Friday - READ HERE - we're now looking at anyone in a Mexican wrestling mask (or mascara, as they call it) with all sorts of suspicion...

Is that you, Charles Leclerc...?