F1 Mexico GP: Follow FP1 in Mexico City with live timing

Antonelli indeed lost his lap. Bearman then sets a 1m21.884s to go top on the hard tyre, but Iwasa's finding time in the Red Bull and goes to the top! 1m21.351s for the Japanese driver.

Lindblad beats Iwasa's first sector, but loses time in the second - but sets a 1m21.802s on the medium to rise to first. 

Of course, take all the laps with a pinch of salt for now.

Perez improves his time, kicking out the rear around the half-Peraltada. Antonelli slips off at Turn 12, goes quickest regardless, but that's probably a track limits.

The cars will be slippery with less aero compared to last year, and the circuit has also been resurfaced - so it needs time to bed in. 

Piastri has a lock-up at Turn 4 - the rookies, then, will want to keep things clean.

Tsolov says "something is smoking", but is told the brakes are just a touch hot. 

Almost a full house already, as teams want to get a sense of the conditions - Alonso is not out yet. Tsolov opens his first lap at an F1 weekend on the medium tyre.

Perez opens with a 1m26.713s, immediately beaten by Leclerc's 1m21.965s, but there's still a ton of time to find. 

Just a couple of minutes to go - and then it's the usual 60 minutes of FP1 fun!  It's 22C air temperature, 43C track, and low-density air - 78% of the usual density at sea level, which means the turbos have to work harder to feed the engine with the same mass flow rate of air.

Cooling is much more difficult as well, hence we have a surplus of cooling louvres on the cars. 

The Mex-t generation

Big opportunity for some of these rookies in Mexico practicr: Nikola Tsolov is in contention for a Racing Bulls seat for 2027, while Freddie Slater's junior record suggests that he's a potential future F1 hope for Audi.

And then there's Cadillac: the American squad's line-up looked set, but Colton Herta is very much in the frame - and closing in on the superlicence points needed to drive in F1 in 2027. 

Of course, a Mexico FP1 session is regarded as the moment where Ollie Bearman got onto Haas' radar after impressing the team with his run in 2023.

Colton Herta, Hitech

Photo by: Getty Images

The bug in the system

We've been talking about bugs quite a lot over the recent flyaways - software bugs in Malaysia and Singapore (well, the latter wasn't a bug - someone just forgot to press a button) and now a bit of a sickness bug going around the paddock.

Kimi Antonelli missed media day yesterday, Valtteri Bottas was also unwell, and now Sergio Perez has caught something and missed the earlier fan forum. Cadillac is hoping the Mexican is well enough to drive in FP1, especially in front of the home crowd...

Sergio Perez, Cadillac Racing

Photo by: Manuel Eletto / Getty Images

The FP1 rookies

In the event we have any newcomers, or just want a refresher: every driver who has done more than two races in F1 must give up their seat for FP1 at least twice per season. Arvid Lindblad is exempt, as his first two FP1 appearances of the 2026 season counted.

Mercedes: Vesti in for Russell
Red Bull: Iwasa in for Verstappen
McLaren: Fornaroli in for Norris
Racing Bulls: Tsolov in for Lawson
Alpine: Mini in for Colapinto
Haas: Hirakawa in for Ocon
Audi: Slater in for Bortoleto
Williams: Browning in for Albon
Aston Martin: Crawford in for Stroll
Cadillac: Herta in for Bottas

Gabriele Mini, Alpine F1

Photo by: Manuel Eletto / Getty Images

Mexico City Grand Prix - FP1

Hello everyone, and welcome to our live coverage of F1's Mexico round at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City!

As always, we'll be taking you through the session - one that might look a little bit different this weekend, as there's quite a few new faces making their debut runs in FP1. It's a less important session, this, as the circuit begins very dusty and there's a lot of evolution through the weekend - perfect to use one of your rookie allowances.

Let's have a look, shall we?

Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes

Photo by: Manuel Eletto / Getty Images