Leclerc heads dusty, rookie-heavy FP1 in Mexico as Antonelli dazzles for Mercedes
If you tuned into FP1 in Mexico City expecting a typical systems check, you got a junior formula reunion instead. Nine teams handed their cars to rookies for the opening hour at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, turning the usual Friday warm‑up into a talent showcase on a low‑grip, dust-coated surface. Through the haze, Charles Leclerc put Ferrari on top with a 1:18.380, while Kimi Antonelli stole plenty of the spotlight in second for Mercedes.
With track evolution doing the heavy lifting at altitude — plumes of dust hanging off-line whenever anyone dared venture onto it — teams largely treated the session as an opportunity to bank rookie mileage. Only Sauber stuck with its standard pairing, and it showed: Nico Hülkenberg backed up the Hinwil squad’s tidy morning with third, a tenth behind Antonelli.
Early on, the leaderboard looked like an F2 qualifying sheet. Isack Hadjar set the first meaningful benchmark with a 1:20.128, ahead of Yuki Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon and Hülkenberg. There was a brief yellow for Paul Aron — subbing for Pierre Gasly at Alpine — after a spin through the middle sector, the Estonian then delivering one particularly bold, borderline rally‑spec slide at Turn 4 for good measure. It won’t hurt his case as a 2026 Alpine contender.
As the circuit began to wake up around the halfway mark, Oscar Piastri dragged the times into the 1:19s for McLaren, with Alex Albon slotting Williams into second. That lit the fuse. Leclerc momentarily went quickest, Piastri snatched it back, and then Antonelli swept to the top with a tidy 1:18.487 — the kind of composed lap that suggests he’s already settled into the big seat.
The final say belonged to Leclerc. Ferrari bolted on softs and the Monegasque delivered the session’s best lap before flipping his run plan to long‑run data gathering. Even then, the red car looked planted. Hülkenberg kept Sauber in the mix with third in 1:18.760, ahead of Piastri, who had a lively moment in the esses on his soft-tyre out lap — a snap of oversteer that sent him briefly off before he gathered it up and carried on.
Behind them, Gabriel Bortoleto quietly turned in a polished P5 for Sauber, underlining the team’s tidy baseline on a tricky track. Arvid Lindblad impressed with sixth for Red Bull and, notably, a tenth quicker than Tsunoda in the senior car. Ocon ended seventh for Haas, Tsunoda eighth, Franco Colapinto ninth for Alpine and Albon rounded out the top 10.
Hadjar’s pace faded after an off approaching the stadium section; he reversed out of the runoff under yellows and wound up 11th. Fernando Alonso was 12th for Aston Martin ahead of Pato O’Ward, who got his home fans on their feet with a busy hour in the McLaren. Frederik Vesti was 14th for Mercedes, Aron 15th for Alpine, with Ryo Hirakawa (Haas), Ayumu Iwasa (Racing Bulls), Luke Browning (Williams), Jack Crawford (Aston Martin) and Antonio Fuoco (Ferrari) completing the order.
It was, in short, a session to read with a pinch of dust. The top end featured familiar firepower once the circuit began to offer something, but the rookies made themselves impossible to ignore. Antonelli looked immediately at home, Bortoleto and Lindblad validated plenty of paddock buzz, and several young guns got their obligatory off‑line wake‑up call.
Normal service should resume in FP2 when the regulars retake their seats and the track rubbers in. For now, the takeaways are simple: Ferrari doesn’t mind this place, Mercedes’ wonderkid has a sharp turn of speed, and Sauber’s baseline looks solid. The rest is just dust in the data.
