Friday at the Mexican Grand Prix is always an interesting affair thanks to the unique requirements of the venue and the influx of FP1 ‘rookies’, which cuts into track time for a host of Formula 1 regulars.
This year, it’s no different: a reduced downforce with these rules on a site where it is already expensive; 10 rookies taking the place of the permanent drivers; a high-profile clash with Max Verstappen; and Ferrari securing the title of favorite means it has been a busy day.
Here are our winners and losers from the action.
Loser: Max Verstappen (5th in FP2)
“When you’re fighting for your seat… it’s not very intelligent behavior,” Verstappen told Sky Sports F1 of Liam Lawson’s battle with him during FP2 of all sessions…
Verstappen overtook Lawson on the inside of the right-hander at Turn 12, but there was contact, and Verstappen accused Lawson of starting to accelerate as soon as he saw him.
They raced side by side through turns 13 and 14 before Verstappen left the track and eventually advanced through contact exiting the stadium section.
It was aggressive from Verstappen, but Lawson can’t afford to do anything to upset the Red Bull higher-ups with his seat on the line; Verstappen admitted as much, and upsetting Red Bull’s golden goose won’t help.
Especially with Lawson’s most obvious replacement, Nikola Tsolov, just a fraction less than Arvid Lindblad in Lawson’s car during his impressive FP1 debut. -Jack Benyon
Winner: Charles Leclerc (1st)
Leclerc dominated both Friday sessions and, although the gap to Lando Norris was only a tenth in FP2, the Ferrari driver had the best long-term pace of all.
His switch to medium tires in FP2 was more than a tenth quicker than Norris’s similar long-term average – despite being run on soft tires. The second best driver on medium tires was Kimi Antonelli, 0.324 seconds behind Leclerc’s benchmark.
This is promising for Ferrari but the team has not taken pole position this season.
Perhaps its upgrade package for the US GP made it a real contender, and perhaps that smaller turbo pays off in the air and low-speed corners of Mexico. – Samarth Canal
Loser: Lewis Hamilton (11th)
Hamilton was around seven tenths behind his teammate in both sessions and although Ferrari was the only team not to field a rookie in FP1, the seven-time champion still lost track time.
Hamilton had to park his Ferrari halfway through FP2 due to a loss of power.
He did, however, say that “the car felt good” and that positive set-up steps were made after FP1.
Despite this, and Hamilton downplaying Ferrari’s potential advantage due to its smaller turbo – saying Mercedes and Red Bull are “even faster at the end of the straight” – he was positive after FP2.
“The car handles very well basically. Our car works really well, apparently, on a track like this.”
And that could put Ferrari in the race for pole.
“The others seem to be one step closer, but honestly we feel like we might be close to competing up front,” he said. -Sask.
Winner: Fernando Alonso (12th)
Alonso said he was “open-minded” about Aston Martin-Honda’s prospects this weekend, but would he have seriously expected to reach the dizzying heights of 12th place in second practice?
We take seventh place in a FP1 full of rookies with a pinch of salt, but the FP2 time looked okay: certainly, none of the delayed cars behind him in the second session look like a sure bet to move ahead on Saturday.
And in fact, in Alonso’s hands, the car was closer to the top 10 than the cars immediately behind. Whisper it, but the Aston Martin could be an outside contender for a Q3 spot in qualifying.
The long-term pace wasn’t too bad either – so maybe Mexico is the place for that ninth or tenth on merit that Alonso thought he deserved a week ago. -Jack Cozens
Loser: Esteban Ocon (13th)
It was above all a FP2 to forget for Ocon because he was not satisfied with the management of his session by his Haas team.
His time wasn’t bad. After taking over Ryo Hirakawa’s car for FP2, Ocon beat teammate Ollie Bearman to finish in a respectable 13th place. But there was friction on the radio with his engineer Laura Mueller.
LM: We changed the high fuel RPM to medium RPM because Ollie’s (tire) appearance isn’t great.
EO: You still do software, right?
LM: No, we have to do medium.
EO: No, no, I wanted the software, don’t do that to me. Come on.
He’s already leaving the team, so this isn’t a trade that has huge long-term implications. But it’s clear that Ocon is still concerned about his outings this year – perhaps trying to impress Cadillac into taking a chance on 2027, even if that’s not in the cards – and reports that he threw his gloves on the table in displeasure with the Haas hospitality. -JB
Winner: Lando Norris (2nd)
Not only a notch above Oscar Piastri (on course for much of 2026), but Ferrari’s closest challenger in terms of single-lap pace and long runs, it was a strong Friday from Norris – made more impressive by the fact he only had an hour in the car.
What must encourage McLaren and Norris, despite his claim that “the car still proves difficult to drive”, is the straight line speed which is maintained – on the main straight to some extent, which could prove useful off the start line, but particularly in the run up to Turn 4. The car also looks quite practical in the Esses.
As Norris said: “We still have a lot to work on overnight as a team, but the foundation is definitely there that we can build on.” -JC
Loser: Colton Herta (22nd)
Herta started the day hoping to rack up 100km and achieve a goal he’s been trying to achieve for around five years now: meeting the points requirements for an F1 superlicence.
Crazyly, that’s been taken away from him now because of a corrected error on the IndyCar website that the FIA used to evaluate his points, giving him more than he should have. So he’s short of one again.
Herta didn’t even know it until after FP2, but if anyone’s ready to know what to do when it comes to superlicense disappointment, it’s him.
In his FP1 he looked disjointed, but he struggled to adjust in Turn 12 and by the time he realized it, his performance was over. He felt his long runs were more impressive.
Every chance on track right now is another opportunity to try to convince Cadillac, General Motors and TWG that they should put him in the car, and now Herta will almost certainly get at least one more chance this season as the team will give him another outing to get the point needed to make him eligible for F1. Still, he could have made his next outing a little tidier. -JB
Loser: Gabriel Bortoleto (22nd)
Bortoleto only managed to complete 12 laps in FP2 while confined to the garage for much of the session – although it was unclear whether the problems were a continuation of those which prevented debutant Freddie Slater from putting in any meaningful laps in FP1.
His teammate Nico Hulkenberg completed 62 laps on Friday.
It’s a lot of learning about tires, aerodynamics and powertrain around this high altitude anomaly of a circuit.
Bortoleto is down before Saturday. -Sask.
Winner: George Russell (3rd)
After a disappointing event in Austin where he was largely overshadowed by Antonelli and called his race “rubbish”, Russell needed a strong start in Mexico – and he got it.
Despite the absence of FP1, when Fred Vesti took over, Russell was immediately on the spot and had a tenth lead over an admittedly under-time Antonelli in FP2.
Russell didn’t seem as happy as one might think with this result. He reckons Ferrari is the clear favorite and Mercedes is out of the ideal window – struggling with cornering balance linked to the car’s troublesome upgrade in Malaysia.
But regardless of all that, the “first mission” for the rest of the year must be to beat Antonelli in every session, and that was accomplished on Friday. -JB
Loser: Valtteri Bottas (21st)
Bottas is benefiting from the doubt of having been crippled by lost track time, after missing FP1, and being struck down by the same viral infection that is affecting teammate Sergio Perez (who skipped his pre- and post-training engagements).
That said, finishing three-quarters of a second behind your teammate when there is more and more speculation surrounding your seat, and when the leading candidate to take it away from you (Herta) is taking a spin in your car, is not a particularly good look. There’s also no need to admit that you’re “a little lost with the setup.”
Let’s give a little more benefit of the doubt: as Bottas says, it’s “normal, it can happen”. And it’s entirely possible that he will keep his seat – team principal Marcin Budkowski admitted that Cadillac “isn’t giving these guys the best possible equipment” and is therefore trying to overcome Bottas’ difficulties with him.
But there are only so many of these types of performance gaps that are acceptable at this point before patience runs out. -JC
Gn sports
