Lewis Hamilton will miss the first practice session this weekend in Mexico with his 2025 Mercedes replacement Kimi Antonelli filling in.
Seven-time F1 world champion Hamilton will leave Mercedes at the end of the season, joining Ferrari in 2025.
Hamilton will be replaced by 18-year-old Italian star Kimi Antonelli, who crashed out on his F1 race weekend debut last month in Monza.
Yet Antonelli will be given another chance in the Mercedes cockpit – this time deputising for Hamilton instead of George Russell – this weekend in Mexico City.
F1 rules state that teams must give two practice opportunities throughout the season to rookie drivers, one in each car.
Hamilton endured a weekend to forget at the US Grand Prix in Austin, qualifying second-slowest and crashing out on lap two.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, however, insisted Hamilton’s spin into the gravel was not a driver error.
Asked by Sky Sports F1 for his take on the crash, Wolff said: “100% car. I think he was not even pushing at that stage.
“We’ve seen it [in qualifying] with George, and that was maybe over pushing it, but still abrupt[ly] losing it, putting it in the wall. Today, such a situation, there was wind and there was a little bit of dirty air.
“We have definitely [got] an issue. I don’t know whether it was yesterday the same as today. Definitely Lewis Hamilton doesn’t lose the car like this.”
Hamilton is sixth in the championship with five races to go. He is a two-time winner at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
