The teams had a rough Friday in Mexico City.
MEXICO CITY, Mexico—It was a day when Pirelli was supposed to have an important soft tire test at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez. However, the storyline of Friday practices was about red flags and delays, not soft tires, and the combination gave few drivers and teams a taste of what the tires were supposed to do.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz set the best time of the afternoon, recording a 1:17:669, ahead of the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, with Yuki Tsunoda taking third in the RB. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took fourth in the second Ferrari, followed by McLaren’s Lando Norris. Haas F1’s Kevin Magnussen finished sixth, with the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton seventh. Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas had a good run, taking eighth, with the home driver Sergio Perez finishing ninth in the Red Bull and Liam Lawson in the second RB in tenth.
For the tire test in general, the typically one-hour session was extended to thirty minutes so the drivers could have more time to find out how the tires would work. But Mercedes George Russell found out within 13 minutes into the afternoon session that it was not so easy. The Briton hit the curb at turn eight and spun sideways into the barriers. Russell came out unharmed but was assisted at the medical center, where he was checked and released. This brought out the red flag for nearly half an hour so the marshals could put his car on the flatbed truck and fix the barriers he struck. The incident deprived many other drivers of learning how the tires would work. However, as luck would have it, only 20 minutes were left in the session to determine how this would occur.
The opening session also had its share of drama. On a flying lap, the Williams of Alex Albon crashed into the slower Ferrari of Oliver Bearman, who was driving for Leclerc for one session, causing a 13-minute delay. Bearman gave the car to Leclerc for the afternoon, but Albon had to fix his car and missed the second practice session.
Another surprise was Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who went onto the circuit only to return and sit out the rest of the session quickly. Mechanics later found out that the issue became a power unit problem.
Typically, Saturday’s qualifying would be telecast on ESPN, but it’s a big day in college football, so coverage was switched to ESPN+, a separate subscription option. Sunday’s race will be covered by ABC beginning at 4 PM.
