Mexico City GP: Russell sets the pace for Mercedes in FP1
Yesterday at 03:41 PM
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 ahead 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, whiile Verstappen ended FP1 early 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 Austin 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 (sitting in for Charles Leclerc.
Robert Shwartzman was not far behind in the Sauber in place of Zhou Guanyu, while Andrea Kimi Antonelli was in the Mercedes in exchange for Lewis Hamilton. Patricio O'Ward was also in action, keeping Lando Norris' seat warm in the McLaren.
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 smells in his cockpit.
After overcoming a typical bottleneck in the stadium section, it was Mercedes' George Russell who took an early advantage on the session with a time of 1:20.727s keeping him just 0.068s ahead of Red Bull's Sergio Perez.
This was over 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 on point 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 pack the Ferrari by the road side and climb out.
"He hit me, I'm out," complained Bearman, who jumped onto a moped to get a 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 second Ferrari while Russell was 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, 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 also put together a 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. Many 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 h moved up to P13 just behing Antonelli in 13th.
Sainz then moved to within 0.317s of Russell's time, but there were problems with 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 for the Dutch driver.
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 Laim Lawson with Perez rounding out the topp ten.
Second practice will involve a quote 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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