Round 20 of 24 takes place at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City. This track has always been strong for Red Bull, with Max Verstappen claiming five wins since his first one at the track in 2017. After the last round in Austin, Max Verstappen extended his lead in the Championship by 5 points, with the gap to Norris now at 57 points. Austin GP winner Charles Leclerc sits in P3 with a 79-point deficit to Verstappen and an outsider shot at the title.
With a maximum of 146 points still on the table, both drivers will be seeking to close the gap on Verstappen to keep their respective title hopes alive. On the Constructor’s side, it’s still all to play for, with McLaren leading the way with 544 points, with Red Bull 40 and Ferrari 48 points behind.
Driver changes for FP1 as part of the mandatory rookie running: Robert Shwartzman in for Zhou at Sauber, IndyCar star Patricio O’Ward in for Norris at McLaren, Oliver Bearman in for Leclerc at Ferrari, Felipe Drugovich in for Alonso at Aston Martin, and Kimi Antonelli in for Hamilton at Mercedes.
The drivers head out at 12:30 local time in sunny conditions for the 60-minute session. Rookies Felipe Drugovich, Oliver Bearman, and Robert Shwartzman are among the first drivers out on the track. The first timed lap, a 1:24.501, came in from Yuki Tsunoda on the hard compound tyre. Tsunoda’s time was quickly beaten by Sainz, Ocon, the McLaren duo of Piastri and O’Ward, with the fastest being Max Verstappen with a 1:20.970 followed by Valtteri Bottas slotting into P2 before the session was interrupted by a Red Flag for debris on the track.
The session restarted at 12:41, with 49 minutes still on the clock and many drivers eager to get running again. Kevin Magnussen was the first to complete a lap, with 1.20.912, which was beaten by Mercedes George Russel’s 1:20.727, which saw him take the lead ahead of Perez, who clocked in at 1:20.795.
After a cooldown lap, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz went fastest with a 1:19.942, making him the first driver to go under 1:20. Russel and Albon went even faster, with the Williams driver taking P1 with 1:19.812, just 0.004s ahead of the Mercedes of George Russell.
Close to the halfway point of the session, Russell improved his time on his second run to take the lead with 1:19.519, a time beaten by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who posted a 1:19.407 before the session was interrupted by another Red Flag after the Williams of Alex Albon ended up in the wall at Turn 10 after contact with Oliver Bearman in the Ferrari that marked the end of the session for both drivers. The incident will be investigated after the session.
The Session restarted at 13:06 local time and the field heading out on the soft compound tyres after the first laps were clocked on the hard compound.
On the out-lap, Verstappen and Sainz battled for track position, with Sainz staying ahead to start his first lap on the softs. Sainz beat his own time from earlier in the session with a 1:18.573. George Russell went faster with 1:17.998, slotting in ahead of Sainz and Verstappen. Yuki Tsunoda, however, slotted in ahead of Verstappen for P3 with a 1:18.699 on his soft run.
After the soft runs, the front runners pitted to go out on the hards, using the remaining 15 minutes of running for race simulations. With 3 minutes left to run, Max Verstappen got out of the car after complaining about no power. In the garage, smoke was seen coming from Red Bull’s engine. It was the end of the session for the Championship leader.
Pato O’Ward in the McLaren was the first to take the flag finishing the session in P13 behind fellow rookie Kimi Antonelli in P12. Due to most drivers completing their race runs in the final stages the session concluded with Russell ahead of Sainz and Tsunoda. Verstappen, Hulkenberg, Piastri, Ocon, Bottas, Lawson and local hero Sergio Perez completed the Top 10.
