Charles Leclerc led both Friday practice sessions in Mexico City, but Norris and Russell were within 0.106s by FP2. Hamilton lost valuable running, while Verstappen and Lawson collected grid penalties.
Charles Leclerc made the early running look easy in Mexico City. The Ferrari driver led Friday’s first practice session by more than half a second, then topped FP2 as well. The second result came with a warning: McLaren and Mercedes were almost on his tail.
Leclerc’s best lap of 1m17.827s left Lando Norris only 0.103s behind and George Russell a further 0.003s adrift. Championship leader Kimi Antonelli took fourth, ahead of Max Verstappen. The day was less kind to Lewis Hamilton, whose Ferrari stopped with a power-unit problem. Verstappen and Liam Lawson then gave the stewards something else to deal with after colliding in FP2.
Leclerc sets the benchmark, but the field closes up
Leclerc’s FP1 time of 1m18.128s was 0.659s faster than Antonelli. Frederik Vesti, deputising for Russell at Mercedes, finished third, ahead of Hamilton and Red Bull reserve Ayumu Iwasa. Ferrari also had an unusual advantage: both race drivers were in their cars for the entire opening hour.
That sizeable margin needs context. Ten of the 11 teams put a young driver in one car during FP1, so Norris, Russell and Verstappen had no representative lap of their own until the afternoon. The dusty circuit was also improving rapidly as rubber went down. Friday morning was a useful Ferrari statement, not a qualifying prediction.
In FP2, Leclerc was quickest on the medium tyre before the field switched to qualifying-style soft-tyre runs. He bounced over the kerbs on one attempt and locked up into Turn 1 on another. The clean lap finally arrived: 1m17.827s, the fastest time anyone managed on Friday.
Norris stopped the clock at 1m17.930s and Russell at 1m17.933s. Antonelli was within 0.217s of Leclerc, too. The FP1 classification suggests a comfortable Ferrari lead; the FP2 order points towards a much tighter fight for pole.
The rookies change the picture in FP1
Vesti made the strongest impression among the substitutes, completing 24 laps in Russell’s Mercedes and finishing just 0.074s behind Antonelli. Iwasa was fifth in Verstappen’s Red Bull, while Nikola Tsolov made his F1 practice debut in Lawson’s Racing Bulls.
Leonardo Fornaroli drove Norris’s McLaren, Gabriele Minì replaced Franco Colapinto at Alpine and Colton Herta took Valtteri Bottas’s Cadillac seat. Audi ran Freddie Slater, Haas put Ryō Hirakawa in its car, and Williams and Aston Martin fielded Luke Browning and Jak Crawford respectively.
The young-driver runs brought their own difficulties. Audi lost track time when Slater left the garage with a cooling fan still attached to the car, and Crawford’s Aston Martin stopped near Turn 1. Hadjar also reported power and steering concerns. Several regular drivers returned for FP2 needing to compress a full afternoon’s preparation into one session.
Mexico City Grand Prix 2026 — FP1 and FP2 top ten
| Position | FP1 — driver and time/gap | FP2 — driver and time/gap |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charles Leclerc — 1:18.128 | Charles Leclerc — 1:17.827 |
| 2 | Kimi Antonelli +0.659s | Lando Norris +0.103s |
| 3 | Frederik Vesti +0.733s | George Russell +0.106s |
| 4 | Lewis Hamilton +0.738s | Kimi Antonelli +0.217s |
| 5 | Ayumu Iwasa +0.985s | Max Verstappen +0.311s |
| 6 | Pierre Gasly +1.082s | Isack Hadjar +0.410s |
| 7 | Fernando Alonso +1.229s | Arvid Lindblad +0.562s |
| 8 | Oscar Piastri +1.248s | Pierre Gasly +0.580s |
| 9 | Oliver Bearman +1.284s | Liam Lawson +0.628s |
| 10 | Arvid Lindblad +1.350s | Oscar Piastri +0.642s |
All gaps are to the fastest valid lap in the relevant session. Ten teams ran a substitute driver during FP1; the regular drivers returned for FP2.
Verstappen and Lawson pay for a needless FP2 clash
Verstappen and Lawson both needed mileage after missing FP1. Instead, they became entangled through the stadium section. Verstappen went inside approaching Turn 12; Lawson fought back through the following corners, and the pair made contact near Turn 14. Debris on the track brought out a red flag.
The Red Bull’s floor was damaged and Lawson lost part of his front wing. Both cars resumed running, with Verstappen fifth and Lawson ninth at the flag. Their afternoon was not finished, however.
Both drivers received a one-place grid penalty and one penalty point. The stewards had already warned teams about unnecessary manoeuvres in practice and judged that another warning was not enough. Verstappen and Lawson acknowledged that their actions were unnecessary and clumsy. The published penalty decision leaves them carrying a grid drop into qualifying.
Verstappen still finished only 0.311s behind Leclerc, with team-mate Isack Hadjar another 0.099s back. How much speed the floor damage cost him is impossible to isolate from the timing screen. Red Bull has both repairs and set-up decisions to make overnight.
Hamilton’s stoppage cuts into Ferrari’s race preparation
Hamilton spent part of FP1 gathering aerodynamic data before finishing fourth. He managed just 13 laps of FP2. After reporting a loss of power, he was told to park the Ferrari between Turns 3 and 4, prompting a Virtual Safety Car. His earlier 1m18.512s left him 11th.
Ferrari was still investigating the problem after practice. Leclerc completed 35 laps in the afternoon and collected longer-run tyre data; Hamilton missed the equivalent comparison. That imbalance matters more than his finishing position on the timing sheet. Haas had engine work of its own after Oliver Bearman’s power-unit trouble at the end of FP1.
Russell’s third place was encouraging for Mercedes given that he missed FP1, and Antonelli was only 0.217s off the pace. Norris was even closer in the McLaren. Oscar Piastri finished tenth after an untidy soft-tyre attempt, but that single lap is a poor basis for judging McLaren’s prospects across both cars.
Neither Mercedes nor McLaren sounded entirely satisfied. Mercedes continued to chase stability on corner entry, while Norris wanted more from the car despite finishing second. With Mexico City’s altitude reducing aerodynamic load and complicating cooling, even small set-up changes carry trade-offs.
Norris leads the long-run figures, but the tyres muddy the comparison
Norris also had a competitive race simulation. Autosport’s long-run figures put the McLaren at an average 1m21.319s over 13 soft-tyre laps. Russell averaged 1m21.442s over 12 laps and Verstappen 1m21.490s over nine. Leclerc’s 14-lap average was 1m21.501s, although his Ferrari was on the medium compound.
There is no straightforward pecking order in those numbers. The tyre compounds and stint lengths differ, teams do not publish their fuel loads or engine settings, and Verstappen was driving a damaged car. Norris’s figures are promising; Leclerc’s position on a slower compound is hardly discouraging for Ferrari.
Pirelli found significant degradation on both the C4 medium and C5 soft, along with some front-left graining. The soft was about eight tenths quicker over one lap, but it may be harder to keep alive over a race stint. The supplier sees a tyre-managed one-stop or a two-stop as viable possibilities; the C3 hard remains available too.
Grip improved considerably as the track rubbered in. If that trend continues, graining may ease before Sunday. For now, there is no reason to assume the quickest car over one lap will be the easiest on its tyres for 71 laps.
Antonelli can finish the title fight on Sunday
Antonelli brought a 123-point lead over Russell to Mexico after winning at Austin. Ninth or better in Sunday’s Grand Prix would make him World Champion regardless of his rivals’ results. Fourth in FP2, barely two tenths behind Leclerc, gives Mercedes a sound starting point for Saturday.
The Mexico City Grand Prix preview has the championship background and circuit guide. FP3 starts at 17:30 GMT on Saturday 31 October, followed by qualifying at 21:00 GMT. Sunday’s 71-lap race begins at 20:00 GMT on 1 November.
Tech Torque Verdict
Ferrari can take real confidence from Leclerc’s Friday. He was quick on both medium and soft tyres and recovered from a messy first qualifying simulation to set the day’s fastest lap. But Norris and Russell finished barely a tenth behind, and Hamilton’s stoppage left a hole in Ferrari’s long-run preparation.
Mercedes and McLaren look capable of challenging, while the damage to Verstappen’s Red Bull makes his fifth place difficult to read. Pirelli’s degradation figures keep the race picture open as well. Leclerc won Friday’s timing battle; the real test is whether Ferrari can repeat it when qualifying gets serious.
