Charles Leclerc went fastest in the first free practice session at the Mexico City Grand Prix, setting a lap time of 1:18.380.
Kimi Antonelli and Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top three in an hour that saw nine rookies deputising. Oscar Piastri, who had a late slide in his McLaren, was only fourth quickest.
The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez is a popular venue for teams to switch out a regular driver to satisfy the F1 regulations that mandate a rookie must be run in four FP1 sessions over a season — two on each car.
Arvid Lindblad, setting into the Red Bull in place of Max Verstappen, was the quickest of that cohort, going sixth fastest and quicker than Yuki Tsunoda in the other RB21.
The F2 driver is in contention for a Racing Bulls seat in 2026, along with Tsunoda and Liam Lawson, who was sitting out for Ayumu Iwasa in the VCARB 02.
It was a quiet session overall, with technical issues at F1 blighting the broadcast — this accounts for any missing data in the full results below.
Result Free practice 1 - Mexican
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