Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton ended up the quickest in F1 Mexico GP FP1 session from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen.
It was a gloomy start to the F1 Mexico GP after rain-shower late on Thursday night, with the circuit still damp in parts and drivers having some tough moments initially. Multiple drivers had offs, which included a red flag for Racing Point’s Lance Stroll.
The Canadian lost the rear and went into the barrier at Turn 16 just after the stadium section. He managed to continue on and pit where the team did a quick work to send him out again. The FP1 session, though, was topped by Hamilton with a 1m17.327s lap.
He doesn’t have his regular race engineer Peter Bonnington in Mexico as well as in US GP, with Marcus Dudley taking over. Behind Hamilton was Leclerc (1m17.446s) with Verstappen (1m17.461s) then rounding out the Top 3 positions.
Verstappen had a late scrap with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen post the red flag for track position. The Dutchman’s teammate Alexander Albon (1m17.949s) did well to be fourth with Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas (1m18.005s) in fifth.
The Finn had an off moment among others with Vettel (1m18.218s) finishing sixth as both Ferrari drivers set their best time on the medium compound. McLaren’s Carlos Sainz (1m18.401s) was best of the rest in seventh ahead of the two Toro Rosso drivers.
It was Pierre Gasly (1m18.593s) ahead of Daniil Kvyat (1m18.835s) as Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi (1m18.959s) rounded out the Top 10, with Gasly and Giovinzzi both having off moments as well.
Outside the Top 10 were Renault’s Nico Hulkenberg (1m19.011s) with Haas’ Magnussen (1m19.013s) in 12th, Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen (1m19.205s) 13th, McLaren’s Lando Norris (1m19.299s) 14th and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo (1m19.499s) 15th.
Raikkonen and Norris were in the list of drivers to go off in slippery conditions. It wasn’t a superb session for Racing Point with Stroll (1m19.679s) 16th and Sergio Perez (1m19.717s) 17th but the two drivers set their quickest time on the medium tyres.
Haas’ Romain Grosjean (1m19.850s) was 18th with Williams’ George Russell (1m20.548s) 19th and Nicholas Latifi (1m21.566s) 20th – the Canadian replacing Robert Kubica for first of his three FP1 sessions.
