Leclerc storms to Mexican pole as Verstappen, Hamilton face investigations

Charles Leclerc roared to a second straight Formula 1 pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix, leading a Ferrari one-two.

The Monegasque pumped in a 1:17.166 effort on the first runs in Q3 to upset Max Verstappen who had led all three practice sessions.

Team-mate Carlos Sainz was less than a tenth behind in second with Verstappen improving on his second Q3 lap, but ultimately falling 0.097s short.

Daniel Ricciardo took fourth for AlphaTauri with home favourite Sergio Perez fifth ahead of Lewis Hamilton.

Lando Norris will start 18th at best after a shock Q1 elimination, with Verstappen, Hamilton and George Russell among those facing investigations for various incidents.

Verstappen opened Q3 with a blistering 1:17.286, but was quickly beaten by Sainz and then Leclerc with the 1:17.166 that would stand as the pole time.

On the second push laps, Verstappen managed to shave 0.025s off his best time, but still fell less than a tenth short of overhauling Leclerc - who also claimed pole last time out in the United States.

Perez improved to fifth fastest 0.031s clear of sixth-place Hamilton, with Oscar Piastri the meat in a Mercedes sandwich in seventh with Russell eighth.

Valtteri Bottas bested Alfa Romeo team-mate Zhou Guanyu by 0.018s - the latter limited to only one run during the pole position shootout.

Albon falls in Q2

The highest profile casualty of Q2 was the Williams of Alex Albon - the slowest driver who set a time in 14th place.

Owing to his back-of-the-grid penalties, Yuki Tsunoda did not set a time and drops to 20th, being joined by Pierre Gasly, Nico Hulkenberg and Fernando Alonso in dropping out.

Zhou appeared to be the driver to miss out after the final flying lap of the session from Albon dropped him below the bubble, but a ping for track limits cost Albon his fastest time, dropping him to 14th.

Up front, Hamilton topped the segment from Verstappen on a 1:17.571.

Norris suffers shock exit

In Q1, Norris was one of a handful of drivers to attempt to post a time good enough to get through on the Medium compound Pirellis.

However, his time was not good enough, leading to McLaren needing a run on the Softs to try and get him through to Q2.

A mistake through the high-speed sweepers forced him to abort the lap, which coupled with a yellow flag for a Fernando Alonso spin at Turn 3 brought an effective early end to the session with Norris 19th and out.

He was joined in the elimination zone by Esteban OCON, Kevin Magnussen, Lance Stroll and Logan Sargeant whose times were taken away for track limits.

Up front, Verstappen topped the segment with a 1:18.099.