Verstappen and Albon trigger red flags in heavily disrupted Mexican GP practice

Three-time F1 champion Max Verstappen endured a worrying first practice session for this weekend's Mexico City Grand Prix.

Verstappen ended the hour-long run at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez fourth quickest, 0.841s adrift of the leading time set by Mercedes' George Russell with a 1:17.998s.

It was a session that was red-flagged, however, after just four minutes due to a piece of debris on the track. At that stage, only eight drivers had posted a time, with Verstappen leading the way with a 1:20.970s on the hard compound.

It is understood, however, from a radio message from Verstappen, that the debris was a result of him running over something. It resulted in his pit crew working on the car to ensure it was fit to return to the track.

Later in the session, with five minutes remaining, a slowing Verstappen radioed in to say, "There's something wrong with the engine. It's not nice. There's no power."

The championship leader, 57 points clear of McLaren's Lando Norris, managed to make his way back to the garage, where his team were again forced into action.

Albon slates Bearman as "an idiot"

After 22 minutes, the red flags were flying again, this time after a heavy crash involving Williams' Alex Albon.

Through the high-speed sweep in the middle sector, Albon emerged out of Turn 9 where he encountered a slow Ollie Bearman in a Ferrari, with the Briton standing in for Charles Leclerc.

In fairness to Bearman, he had done all that could be expected of him in trying to make way for a driver on a flying lap behind him.

Albon, however, encountered a snap of oversteer exiting Turn 9, resulting in the right rear of his Williams smacking into the front left of the SF-24, forcing the Thai-British driver into a 360-degree spin that culminated in him crashing into a barrier.

Albon described Bearman as an "idiot" over the radio, whilst the young Briton, who will be driving for Haas next year, simply stated, "He hit me!"

The incident resulted in a 14-minute delay, during which time McLaren changed the floor on Lando Norris' McLaren, being driven by another rookie in home hero Pato O'Ward in FP1.

McLaren has introduced a "heavily revised" floor for this weekend, albeit running comparison tests to determine whether it will be used - by Norris only - across the rest of the weekend.

At the time of the second red flag, O'Ward was the slowest of the 17 drivers to set a time with a 1:122.122s, on the hard tyres.

When the drivers switched to the soft tyres, Russell vaulted to the top of the timesheet with his lap just a shade under 78 seconds, made all the more interesting as the Briton was running an older spec of car following his crash in qualifying for last weekend's USGP in Austin.

Russell finished a comfortable 0.317s ahead of Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, with RB's Yuki Tsunoda third quickest, albeit seven-tenths of a second off the pace.

Behind Verstappen was Haas' Nico Hulkenberg, followed by McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Esteban Ocon in his Alpine. They were the only other drivers to finish within a second of Russell.

Five F1 rookies on show

Stake's Valtteri Bottas, the second RB of Liam Lawson, and Sergio Perez on home soil completed the top 10.

O'Ward, the 2017 IMSA Sportscar Championship and 2018 Indy Lights champion, delivered a solid lap of 1:19.295s for 13th quickest, three-tenths of a second adrift of Piastri, albeit with the Australian far from happy with his car.

Alongside Bearman and O'Ward, there were three other rookies on show, as per the regulations with teams forced to field a young driver in place of one of their regulars.

Felipe Drugovich was in for Fernando Alonso at Aston Martin; Kimi Antonelli for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, and Zhou Guanyu was replaced by Robert Shwartzman at Stake.

Drugovich was 18th on the timesheet, ahead of Shwartzman and Bearman, with Antonelli a solid 12th with a time of 1:19.200s.

For the 15 F1 race drivers, it was their primary running of the day as for FP2, stretched to 90 minutes, they will be engaged in 2025 Pirelli tyre testing.

For the five who sat out FP1, they will be allowed 30 minutes to prepare for the remainder of the weekend, with the other hour devoted to the Italian tyre manufacturer's plans.