FP1: Russell leads Sainz and Tsunoda during first practice in Mexico after dramatic Albon/Bearman collision

Mercedes driver George Russell topped first practice for the Mexico City Grand Prix, leading the way from Ferrari rival Carlos Sainz and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda in a session that featured several rookies and a couple of red flags.

With the regulations stating that all Formula 1 drivers must sit out one FP1 per season for a rookie who has no more than two Grand Prix starts, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, Aston Martin and Kick Sauber were the teams to make changes.

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Lewis Hamilton’s 2025 replacement, Kimi Antonelli, drove for the Silver Arrows, along with future Haas driver Ollie Bearman at Ferrari, IndyCar racer and home hero Pato O’Ward at McLaren, former GP2 champion Felipe Drugovich at Aston Martin and Robert Shwartzman at Kick Sauber.

As a result, it meant Hamilton, United States Grand Prix winner Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso (celebrating his 400th race weekend appearance) and Zhou Guanyu all sat on the sidelines for the opening 60 minutes of running.

Only a few minutes into the session, the red flag was thrown by Race Control due to debris on track along the lengthy start/finish straight – replays showing Antonelli running over it as he approached the braking zone for the first corner.

Swift work from the marshals saw cars return to action 10 minutes in, with slides for Oscar Piastri and Kevin Magnussen highlighting the lack of grip on a dusty Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit and in the high-altitude conditions.

Russell, running the older Mercedes package this weekend, was the early pace-setter with a time of 1m 19.519s on Pirelli’s hard compound tyre, while any appearances for O’Ward and fellow Mexican Sergio Perez drew huge cheers from the crowd.

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However, just after Sainz took over at the top on a 1m 19.407s, the red flags reappeared following another moment of drama – Alex Albon losing control of his Williams through the esses, making contact with a slower-moving Bearman and sliding into the wall at speed.

Albon jumped on the radio to confirm that he was unharmed and express his frustration over the incident, with Williams mechanics set for a massive repair job ahead of FP2, while Bearman was also sidelined due to damage to the front-left corner of the Ferrari.

After some barrier adjustments, drivers headed back out with just under 25 minutes remaining, bringing a flurry of improvements that saw Russell return to the top of the timesheets with soft tyres on a 1m 17.998s – ahead of Sainz, Tsunoda and Max Verstappen.

While the top four remained as they were to the chequered flag, there were concerns for title holder and current championship leader Verstappen, who reported that “something’s wrong with the engine” and he had “no power” in the closing stages.

Nico Hulkenberg continued Haas’s encouraging run in fifth place, from the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, the Alpine of Esteban Ocon and the Kick Sauber of Valtteri Bottas, while the other RB of Liam Lawson and Perez rounded out the top 10 places.

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Franco Colapinto was the sole Williams gathering data for most of the session after Albon’s crash en route to 11th, followed by Antonelli, O’Ward, the Haas of Kevin Magnussen, Pierre Gasly’s Alpine and Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin.

Albon and Bearman were 17th and 20th respectively, having missed out on any soft-tyre running, with 18th-placed Drugovich – who hit traffic in the final sector of his best lap – and 19th-placed Shwartzman completing the order.

Drivers and teams will now have a chance to regroup in the paddock and dig through the data ahead of second practice, which is set to begin at 1600 local time and will be dedicated to Pirelli tyre testing.