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Charles Bradley

F1 results: George Russell fastest in Mexican GP practice for Mercedes

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was fastest in FP1 before Russell topped FP2, which doubled as a 2023 Pirelli prototype tyre test and so was unrepresentative in the main.

But Russell set the time on 2022-spec soft tyres, as he didn’t run in FP1, so it was a competitively legitimate lap.

Mexican Grand Prix FP1 results: Sainz fastest from Leclerc

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 Spain Carlos Sainz Ferrari 25 1'20.707     191.983
2 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari 20 1'20.753 0.046 0.046 191.873
3 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull 22 1'20.827 0.120 0.074 191.698
4 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull 22 1'20.827 0.120 0.000 191.698
5 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 17 1'20.849 0.142 0.022 191.646
6 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine 26 1'20.899 0.192 0.050 191.527
7 Finland Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 23 1'21.083 0.376 0.184 191.093
8 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren 21 1'21.120 0.413 0.037 191.005
9 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 25 1'21.310 0.603 0.190 190.559
10 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 24 1'21.525 0.818 0.215 190.057
11 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 16 1'21.762 1.055 0.237 189.506
12 China Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 20 1'21.820 1.113 0.058 189.371
13 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin 24 1'21.865 1.158 0.045 189.267
14 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas 22 1'21.952 1.245 0.087 189.066
15 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams 20 1'22.912 2.205 0.960 186.877
16 New Zealand Liam Lawson AlphaTauri 19 1'23.861 3.154 0.949 184.762
17 United States Logan Sargeant Williams 22 1'24.246 3.539 0.385 183.918
18 Netherlands Nyck de Vries Mercedes 20 1'24.582 3.875 0.336 183.187
19 Australia Jack Doohan Alpine 13 1'24.615 3.908 0.033 183.116
20 Brazil Pietro Fittipaldi Haas 9 1'26.766 6.059 2.151 178.576

What happened in Mexican GP Free Practice 1?

Two-time champion Max Verstappen set the early pace at 1m23.292s on hard tyres, six tenths clear of Red Bull stablemate, and local hero, Sergio Perez.

Verstappen lowered that to 1m22.779s before Perez briefly nicked P1 off him with 1m22.702s to the home crowd’s delight. Verstappen then worked down to 1m22.291s, 0.382s ahead of Perez. 

Sainz was best of the rest for Ferrari on the hards, half a second off, while teammate Charles Leclerc was first to run on softs. Leclerc duly leapt to the top with 1m21.546s, and then improved to 1m20.753s on his second push lap.

Verstappen was on course to beat Leclerc when he spun at the Esses, while Sainz did manage to pip his teammate with 1m20.707s, the fastest time of the session. Perez and Verstappen set exactly the same laptime on softs, 0.12s off the pace, with the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton in fifth, a further 0.02s in arrears, with another 0.05s back to Fernando Alonso’s Alpine

There were plenty of incidents: On a dusty track early on, Williams’ FP1 rookie Logan Sargeant ran wide on the entry to the Foro Sol stadium section, while Alonso also briefly went off track in the Esses.  

The session was red flagged with 22 minutes remaining when Pietro Fittipaldi’s Haas ground to a smoky halt at Turn 2 on an out lap. Meantime, Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo needed retrieving from the end of the pit lane when his gearbox failed to upshift.

Of the FP1 rookies, AlphaTauri’s Liam Lawson was fastest in 16th but had a moment and visited the escape road at Ese del Lago. In the closing minutes of the session he caused a red flag when his car suffered a technical failure and, as he didn’t have time to cool the brakes, the front-left corner caught fire.

Sargeant was 17th, ahead of Nyck de Vries in his final outing for Mercedes. Jack Doohan (Alpine) hit engine trouble on his way to 19th, with Fittipaldi only managing nine laps before his day also ended early. 

Mexican Grand Prix FP2 results: Russell fastest from Tsunoda

Cla Driver Chassis Laps Time Gap Interval km/h
1 United Kingdom George Russell Mercedes 32 1'19.970     193.752
2 Japan Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 30 1'20.798 0.828 0.828 191.767
3 France Esteban Ocon Alpine 31 1'21.177 1.207 0.379 190.871
4 United Kingdom Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 32 1'21.509 1.539 0.332 190.094
5 Mexico Sergio Perez Red Bull 34 1'21.579 1.609 0.070 189.931
6 Netherlands Max Verstappen Red Bull 34 1'21.588 1.618 0.009 189.910
7 Monaco Charles Leclerc Ferrari 13 1'21.618 1.648 0.030 189.840
8 Spain Carlos Sainz Ferrari 34 1'21.693 1.723 0.075 189.666
9 Finland Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 36 1'21.993 2.023 0.300 188.972
10 France Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri 36 1'22.104 2.134 0.111 188.716
11 Spain Fernando Alonso Alpine 31 1'22.337 2.367 0.233 188.182
12 Germany Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin 32 1'22.371 2.401 0.034 188.105
13 Thailand Alex Albon Williams 24 1'22.447 2.477 0.076 187.931
14 United Kingdom Lando Norris McLaren 31 1'22.738 2.768 0.291 187.270
15 Australia Daniel Ricciardo McLaren 27 1'22.763 2.793 0.025 187.214
16 Canada Lance Stroll Aston Martin 23 1'22.840 2.870 0.077 187.040
17 Germany Mick Schumacher Haas 31 1'22.879 2.909 0.039 186.952
18 Denmark Kevin Magnussen Haas 21 1'23.316 3.346 0.437 185.971
19 Canada Nicholas Latifi Williams 34 1'23.320 3.350 0.004 185.962
20 China Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 34 1'23.369 3.399 0.049 185.853

What happened in Mexican GP Free Practice 2?

As in Austin last weekend, FP2 was a lengthened 90-minute 2023 Pirelli prototype tyre test for the majority of runners. Only those who skipped FP1, due to rookie drivers taking their place, got to run as normal.

AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly set the early bar at 1m22.186s before Sainz lapped in 1m21.943s. Mercedes’ George Russell was back in for this session, taking over from de Vries, and leapt to the top of the times on 1m21.742s on mediums.

After a Red Bull interlude – Verstappen took P1 with 1m21.588s, before Perez pipped him by 0.009s on 1m21.579s – Russell switched to softs and unleashed 1m19.970s.

Yuki Tsunoda was second quickest for AlphaTauri, ahead of Alpine’s Esteban Ocon – both also on the 2022 softs.

Just after the 30-minute mark Leclerc crashed heavily on the exit of Turn 8, backing his Ferrari backwards into the barriers.

Hamilton was fastest on the test tyres, over 1.5s off Russell’s pace, and less than a tenth clear of Perez and Verstappen.

The session ended two minutes early when Zhou pulled off with a hydraulic failure in the Foro Sol.

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