Leclerc Sets the Pace in Mexico FP1 as Ten Rookies Take Over the Grid

Charles Leclerc put Ferrari on top in opening practice for the Mexico City Grand Prix, his 1m18.128s on soft tyres standing unbeaten and leaving him 0.659s clear of championship leader Kimi Antonelli. Mercedes filled two of the top three through stand-in Frederik Vesti, with Lewis Hamilton fourth in the second Ferrari.

Why it matters:

Mexico's FP1 runs in conditions nobody will see again all weekend — cooler air, minimal grip and a circuit that sits largely unused for the rest of the year. That made it the ideal spot for nine teams to hand a car to a youngster, with only Ferrari running both race drivers. The timesheet is noisy by design; the auditions are not.

The details:

• Leclerc needed 29 laps to find his benchmark, the track rubbering in rapidly as lap times tumbled from his opening 1m21.965s.
• Antonelli, the championship-elect, ended 0.659s back after leading the early hard-tyre running.
• Vesti, deputising for George Russell, was a tenth further adrift in third on a 1m18.861s.
• Ayumu Iwasa, the reigning Super Formula champion, was the best of the substitutes in fifth, 0.985s off on medium rubber in Max Verstappen's Red Bull.
• Oscar Piastri could not extract a lap from the MCL40, ending eighth and 1.248s down at the venue where he surrendered the championship lead a year ago.
• Isack Hadjar lost time to a power-unit issue, Freddie Slater's Audi stopped with technical trouble and Jak Crawford triggered a brief virtual safety car when he parked Stroll's Aston Martin at Turn 1.

What's next:

The order should shuffle once the track rubbers in properly and the regular drivers take over qualifying trim, but Leclerc's margin offers Ferrari a useful starting point in a fight with Mercedes that has swung both ways in recent rounds.