F1 News
Full Mexican Grand Prix FP1 results | Russell takes P1 ahead of Sainz
George Russell set the earlier pace at the Mexican Grand Prix by taking P1 in the first free practice session. The Mercedes driver finished ahead of Carlos Sainz in P2, with the VCARB of Yuki Tsunoda rounding out the top three.
In what was an incident-filled session that saw two red flags come out, it resulted in quite a topsy-turvy leaderboard. However, Russell stayed at the top for the majority of the hour-long session, setting the pace on both the hard tyres as well as the soft tyres, just ahead of the Ferrari of Sainz.
Tsunoda managed to find the pace on the soft tyres to move him up to the top three, finishing a tenth of a second quicker than the Red Bull of Max Verstappen, who was forced to finish earlier after he lost power.
Nico Hulkenberg then rounded out the top five in the Haas ahead of a mediocre McLaren of Oscar Piastri. Esteban Ocon and Valtteri Bottas also found their way into the top ten, both ahead of Liam Lawson in the other VCARB.
Rounding out the top ten was Sergio Perez, and he will hope to find more pace to give his home fans something to cheer about. Andrea Kimi Antonelli was the best of the FP1 rookies in P12, with IndyCar driver Pato O'Ward P13 in front of his home fans.
The first of the two red flags came just five minutes into the session after some debris was found lying on the racing line, meaning the session was forced to be stopped so that could be cleared up before it was run over by a driver.
The second red flag occurred after Alex Albon and Ollie Bearman collided in the middle of sector two. Albon, who was on a fast lap, lost control on the apex after he was forced to lift off as Bearman, who was on a cool-down lap, was on the racing line. Albon spun out of control and hit Bearman, sending the Willimas into the barriers, while the Ferrari had suspension damage, meaning both could not carry on after this freak accident.
Full Mexican Grand Prix FP1 results:
