Leclerc Dominates Mexico City FP1 as Rookies Take Over the Grid

Charles Leclerc topped the opening practice session for the 2026 Mexico City Grand Prix, lapping the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in 1m18.128s on soft tyres to finish 0.659s clear of Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes. Ferrari was the only team that kept its race drivers in the car, with every other outfit handing FP1 to a junior.

Why it matters:

The session ran 90 minutes earlier than Saturday's qualifying and Sunday's race, on a dusty surface that gained rubber by the minute. The timesheet therefore says more about track evolution and tyre timing than outright pace — but Leclerc's margin, and the speed of Mercedes' young stand-ins, still caught the eye.

The details:

• Antonelli ended up second with a 1m18.787s, with Frederik Vesti — deputising for George Russell — just 0.074s further back in third, giving Mercedes two cars in the top three.
• Lewis Hamilton was fourth, 0.738s off Leclerc, after briefly running third midway through the session.
• Ayumu Iwasa, replacing Max Verstappen at Red Bull, impressed with fifth on the medium compound at 1m19.113s.
• Pierre Gasly took sixth for Alpine on softs, ahead of Fernando Alonso, Oscar Piastri, Oliver Bearman and Arvid Lindblad.
• Piastri never found balance in the MCL40 and finished 1.248s adrift, running off in sector one along with Leonardo Fornaroli.
• Isack Hadjar lost time to a power-unit problem in the Red Bull, Freddie Slater's Audi stopped with a technical issue, and Jak Crawford triggered a brief virtual safety car when he parked Lance Stroll's Aston Martin at Turn 1.

What's next:

Leclerc's early benchmark came on a circuit still well short of representative grip. As the surface rubbers in through FP2 and FP3, expect the order to compress rapidly — and for the teams that ran rookies to show their true hand.