A tantalising prospect - but can Norris now take advantage?

Lando Norris has a tantalising prospect heading into the Mexico City Grand Prix - if the race ends as qualifying did, he will be leading the world championship for the first time in six months.

The McLaren driver trails team-mate Oscar Piastri by 14 points heading into the race, but Norris starts on pole with the Australian down in seventh.

So the reward for one of the qualifying laps of the season could be a significant statement of intent with just five grands prix remaining after this one.

Arriving in Mexico, all the talk was about Red Bull's Max Verstappen and his remarkable run of form.

The Dutchman had taken three wins and a second in the past four races, reducing his deficit to Piastri from 104 points to just 40.

But, like Piastri, Verstappen has also had a difficult weekend, his seemingly unstoppable momentum stalled by a puzzling lack of grip.

If Norris wins the race, Piastri would have to move up to fourth from his grid spot to retain even a slender lead. No easy task when the Australian has been lacking pace all weekend.

But Norris is taking nothing for granted - and he knows that Ferrari's Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes' George Russell in the spots immediately behind him don't have the jeopardy he does, so can play with risk in a more extreme way.

Sitting with Leclerc and Hamilton in the post-race news conference, Norris said of Verstappen and Piastri: "You're talking about - along with these guys here - two of the best drivers on the grid. So I don't think you can ever put it past them to come back through.

"From my side, our race pace has always been very strong this season, so I'm still expecting Oscar to come back through and race well. He normally does. So, let's see. That is my expectation.

"And same with Max - when has he ever not been on the attack and come forward?

"Hopefully I can just stay ahead on lap one, and then these guys can hold everyone else up for me."

Norris got himself on to the front of the grid with what he called "an incredible lap".

Leclerc had been fastest on the first runs in the final session and his lap was so impressive that when Norris finished his final run, although he knew it had been good, even he thought: "If I'd get ahead of Charles, I'd be pretty happy."

In fact, he had beaten the Ferrari by a healthy 0.262 seconds for his first pole since Belgium in late July.

Norris added: "When I saw [one minute] 15.5 on my dash, it put a pretty big smile on my face because it was one of those laps which was… everything just came together in terms of feeling.

"It was very natural and similar to my lap [to take pole] in Monaco. A good feeling, because it's been a while. It's not that often this year I get that feeling in this car, even with how quick it is.

"The car is incredibly quick, but it's not easy to drive. We both complained of that as drivers, but when you just get in that little bit of a rhythm, it's flying, and that's where I was today."

The run from the grid to the first corner is nearly 800m, which can give an advantage to the drivers starting second and third.

Both Leclerc and Hamilton, who produced his best grand prix qualifying of his maiden season at Ferrari, said they would be "aggressive" into the first corner. Something of which Norris knows he has to be wary.

On one level, he knows he has some breathing space with Verstappen and Piastri so far behind. On another, he will want to take advantage of the opportunity this qualifying result has given him.

Piastri, meanwhile, cut a somewhat forlorn figure. He had a difficult weekend in the US a week ago and thought he had found the answers. But as he put it: "What's been a bit surprising here has just been that the gap has been the same pretty much every session.

"I feel like I've done some decent laps through the weekend, but everything seems to be about 0.4-0.5secs off."

Team principal Andrea Stella said Piastri was losing a little bit everywhere, and Piastri said: "I feel like I did a reasonable job and the car felt reasonable as well. So, yeah, the lack of lap time is a bit of a mystery."

Piastri has been off Norris' pace whether on short runs or long, low fuel or high, so it is more in hope that he said of the race: "If I can unlock the pace in the car, we can have some fun. We've just got to try to unlock it."

This is now Piastri's fifth difficult weekend in a row, his form mysteriously evaporating since he won in the Netherlands at the end of August.

He did not talk directly about what this means for the championship, but there was no hiding the meaning behind one of his comments: "There's a lot of things I could worry about, but ultimately being that far off when you feel like you've done a reasonable job is a difficult place to be. And so that's my biggest concern at the moment."

Stella said that the conditions in Mexico, like those in Austin, are ones in which Norris thrives and Piastri is less comfortable - low grip, hot tyres.

And he said that "every evidence, every piece of data, every indirect measurement of information we have, tells us that there is no problem with the car".

He added that it was "good" for McLaren to be able "to confirm that we can have the fastest car", adding that their "focus is to stop the momentum of Verstappen".

Piastri's concerns were shared by Verstappen, also struggling all weekend, his Red Bull looking nothing like the car that had put the fear into McLaren over the previous four races.

"It's just been very difficult," he said. "We've tried a lot of stuff. It's not a lack of trying, but yeah, it's been not great.

"It's just no grip, and you just turn, and traction, it slides."

Red Bull introduced a floor for this weekend - their second in four races, after the one in Monza that was part of a package of chanciness that unlocked the pace of the car.

Verstappen admitted the team would "need to analyse" if that was what was wrong. But he also pointed out that, although he has won in Mexico five times, he was also uncompetitive there last season.

His pessimism carries over into his expectations for the race: "It's going to be difficult. On tyres, you need a good balance and we don't have that.

"I don't expect to be in the battle with those ahead, they are miles faster. It is more with the people around me, I guess."

Norris' biggest challenge in the race, as in qualifying, looks likely to come from the Ferraris.

Both Leclerc and Hamilton have been quick all weekend and the seven-time champion produced his best grid position of the year.

"I can't believe it has taken me this long to get here," said Hamilton, "but it's a journey and I have grown a lot through it. Third is not a bad place to start here and I want to move forwards."

Neither felt there was any big reason for their step forward.

Hamilton said: "This is the first time we've both been up in the top three in qualifying this year and the team truly deserves it. We're just working as hard as we can.

"Super-grateful to everyone in the team for continuing to push and for not giving up."