Sainz takes pole in Mexico ahead of Verstappen, Norris

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz posted the fastest time during Saturday's qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix and finished ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen and McLaren's Lando Norris.

Sainz beat out Verstappen after the Red Bull driver had his lap time deleted due to track limits. The Dutchman appeared to have provisional pole.

"Very happy, a great couple of laps," Sainz said after qualifying, according to Formula 1.

"Since Austin, we've done a step up, also in qualifying, trying to find something extra with the out lap and the tire preparation. It seems we are going in the right direction."

Verstappen's teammate, Sergio Perez, and Norris' driving partner, Oscar Piastri, were unable to advance past the first round of qualifying.

Piastri had his lap time deleted in Q1 after he went off the track at Turn 12.

"I just went off in the Turn 12, got beached on the curb there, and that was it," Piastri said, according to Motorsports' Filip Cleeren. "My lap was easily going to be enough, so it's very frustrating to make that mistake. I lost about a second.

"It's just a tricky circuit, but I don't think today was down to it being tricky. It was just I made a very poor mistake, and that was it."

There was also an abrupt ending to Q2. Yuki Tsunoda crashed at Turn 12 with ten seconds left in the session, forcing a red flag.

Tsunoda was uninjured, but the accident cost his teammate, Liam Lawson, a chance to improve his time and potentially advance into Q1.