Verstappen leads Albon in quiet opening session as five F2 drivers join practice

Max Verstappen set the pace in opening practice for the Mexican Grand Prix, less than a tenth ahead of Alexander Albon and his team mate Sergio Perez.

In a relatively uneventful first practice session, Verstappen and Albon were the only drivers to break under the 1’20 mark on soft tyres. Perez was almost three tenths slower than his team mate in third, with Lando Norris fourth for McLaren.

As one of only two remaining rounds at known circuits that are not sprint weekends, many teams opted to run one of their two young driver Friday practice run allocations they are obliged by the regulations in the opening hour-long session. George Russell sat out of the Mercedes to allow Frederik Vesti to drive, Pierre Gasly was replaced by Jack Doohan in the Alpine, Valtteri Bottas handed over his car to Theo Pourchaire, Kevin Magnussen’s Haas was taken over by Ferrari academy driver Oliver Bearman and Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri would be driven by Isack Hadjar.

As well as the guest appearances, teams were also permitted to run prototype C4 compound tyres by Pirelli to gather data for 2024. Both Aston Martin drivers, Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, were out first onto the circuit on the experimental rubber.

It was not the easiest start to Pourchaire and Hadjar’s first outings in a grand prix practice session. Pourchaire reported a potential brake-by-wire problem with his Alfa Romeo and had to nurse his car back to the pits. Hadjar also recovered to the pit lane after falling into anti-stall in traffic at the stadium section at the end of the lap. While Hadjar managed to continue, Pourchaire was left stranded in the pit lane due to work on his car.

Oscar Piastri was the first driver on the medium compound tyres to set a lap time, posting a 1’23.692 to set the early benchmark. That was soon beaten by Alexander Albon in the Williams, who posted a 1’22.466 to go quickest, with Max Verstappen going second on his first effort behind his former team mate. A piece of metallic debris was seen coming off one of the AlphaTauris along the pit straight, but despite multiple drivers reporting the hazard on the road, race control opted not to intervene as it was off the racing line.

Verstappen fitted medium tyres of his own and used them to take the top spot for the first time with a 1’21.858, but the Mexican fans soon made themselves heard when Sergio Perez jumped ahead of his team mate to put himself fastest, almost three tenths quicker than his team mate. Carlos Sainz Jnr’s attempts to push in his Ferrari were squandered by a hydraulic problem, which left him having to cruise back to the pits with limited steering.

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As the session progressed, the circuit naturally picked up in speed. Norris headed out on soft tyres and comfortably set a new fastest time with a 1’20.237. But Norris’s time on top was short-lived as Verstappen took half a second off the McLaren driver, also on the soft tyres, to set the new best time of the session to a 1’19.718. Perez attempted a push lap on the softs, but was just under three-tenths slower than his pace-setting team mate in second.

Following his earlier hydraulic troubles, Sainz eventually rejoined the track to continue his practice programme. However, Pourchaire was not afforded such a privilege in the Alfa Romeo as he continued to suffer from braking difficulties every time he was sent out. Meanwhile, Zhou Guanyu struck the metallic debris that had been sitting on the grid for a substantial amount of time.

The final 20 minutes of the session were dedicated to higher fuel, long runs. As such, the only improvement near the top of the order was Albon, who came within a tenth of Verstappen’s best on to go second on the soft tyres. But Verstappen’s fastest time lasted until the chequered flag at the end of the hour, leaving the world champion quickest for the first practice session

Albon was second for Williams, two tenths ahead of Perez in third. Norris was two further tenths behind in fourth ahead of Charles Leclerc, Piastri and Sainz in seventh. Daniel Ricciardo was seventh for AlphaTauri ahead of Esteban Ocon in ninth and Stroll rounding out the top ten.

Oliver Bearman was quickest of the Friday junior drivers in 15th, ahead of Hadjar in 17th, Doohan in 18th and Vesti slowest of all drivers who set a time in 19th. Pourchaire failed to complete a single lap at racing speed due to the braking problems that proved unfixable within the session.

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2023 Mexican Grand Prix first practice result

P.	#	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’19.718		29
2	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’19.813	0.095	31
3	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’20.015	0.297	28
4	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’20.237	0.519	30
5	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	SF-23	1’20.297	0.579	30
6	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’20.463	0.745	32
7	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	SF-23	1’20.479	0.761	23
8	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	AT04	1’20.568	0.850	30
9	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’20.677	0.959	26
10	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’20.687	0.969	26
11	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W14	1’20.724	1.006	25
12	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’20.968	1.250	29
13	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’21.129	1.411	27
14	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’21.157	1.439	30
15	50	Oliver Bearman	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’21.313	1.595	31
16	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’21.347	1.629	17
17	41	Isack Hadjar	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	AT04	1’21.941	2.223	25
18	61	Jack Doohan	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’22.109	2.391	25
19	42	Frederik Vesti	Mercedes	W14	1’22.937	3.219	26
20	98	Theo Pourchaire	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	No time		4

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