George Russell had a bright start to the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend, setting the top time for Mercedes ahead of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz in Free Practice 1 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez on Friday.
Russell finished the 60-minute session three tenths ahead of Sainz by the chequered flag, with Yuki Tsunoda third fastest for RB in front of of Max Verstappen and Nico Hulkenberg.
Williams' Alex Albon suffered an accident early in the session that also caught up Ferrari stand-in Oliver Bearman, while Verstappen ended FP1 prematurely with a loss of power on the Red Bull.
After a long gap between Singapore and Austin, the final race weekends of 2024 were coming thick and fast now. Just five days after Ferrari claimed a 1-2 victory in the US, the drivers were back on track again in Mexico City for round 20 of the 2024 season.
First out on track for FP1 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez was Aston Martin reserve driver Felipe Drugovich (subbing for a poorly Fernando Alonso) followed by his Ferrari counterpart Oliver Bearman who was sitting in for Charles Leclerc.
Robert Shwartzman was not far behind in the Sauber in place of Zhou Guanyu, while Andrea Kimi Antonelli was back in the Mercedes this time in exchange for Lewis Hamilton. Patricio O'Ward was also in action, keeping Lando Norris' seat warm at McLaren.
In the opening minutes Antonelli found some debris on his sighting lap which triggered a brief red flag to allow the marshals to clean up. When the session resumed, it was Alpine's Esteban Ocon who took point in getting back to business, while his team mate Pierre Gasly was complaining of a burning smell in his cockpit.
After overcoming a typical bottleneck in the stadium section, it was Mercedes' George Russell who took an early advantage in the session with a time of 1:20.727s keeping him 0.068s ahead of Red Bull's Sergio Perez.
This was still more than three seconds off Leclerc's 2023 pole time, so there was still plenty more time to come from everyone. Soon Williams' Alex Albon took his turn ontop, clocking in at 1:19.812s as the track got cleaned up.
Unfortunately Albon's session came to a premature finish just moments later when he got out of shape closing in on Bearman in the mid-section, and the pair made contact. The Williams went into the barrier resulting in heavy damage, with Bearman also having to park the Ferrari by the road side and climb out.
"He hit me, I'm out," complained Bearman, who jumped onto a moped to get him back to the pit lane. Albon was required to detour via the medical centre for a check up after setting off the impact sensor in the Williams.
It meant another red flag pause in proceedings for barrier repairs and a track sweep-up. Just prior to the stoppage, Carlos Sainz had taken over at the top of the timings with a run of 1:19.407s in the remaining Ferrari while Russell was already back up to P2 just over a tenth behind.
The session resumed with 24 minutes remaining and this time it was Haas' Kevin Magnussen who was first to head off followed by Yuki Tsunoda, then Perez, Gasly and Verstappen. All had moved to the soft compound, and Verstappen found himself having a lively joust with Sainz over who got prime position for their run.
Russell put together another very good lap, posting three purple sectors for a new top time of 1:17.998s which proved six tenths quicker than Sainz and eight tenths ahead of Verstappen, giving Mercedes the early advantage. Elsewhere teams seemed to be struggling to turn on the soft tyres with a single warm-up lap.
"It all feels pretty terrible still," was Piastri's summary of the state of affairs from his perspective, a second slower than the Mercedes. O'Ward was back in last place but he had only just switched to the soft tyres, after which he moved up to P13 just behind Antonelli in 12th.
Sainz then moved to within 0.317s of Russell's time, but there were problems for Verstappen who reported a loss of power on the Red Bull forcing him to limp home to pit lane, and a slightly early end to the session.
Russell's hold on the session lasted to the chequered flag with Sainz second, four tenths ahead of Tsunoda. Verstappen's existing time was good enough for fourth ahead of Nico Hulkenberg while Piastri was sixth from Ocon, Valtteri Bottas and Liam Lawson. Perez rounded out the top ten.
Second practice will involve a quota of tyre development work directed by Pirelli making for an unusual session limiting the usual time teams get to dial in their cars.
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