BRENDAN LINES November 6, 2021

MERCEDES gained the early advantage with a 1-2 fastest finish in FP1 for the Mexico City Grand Prix.

A green and dusty Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez  ̶  the first time Formula 1 had raced on the track since 2019  ̶  made for tricky conditions and added spice to the session, tipped to be dominated by Red Bull.

Mercedes’ Valterri Bottas headed teammate Lewis Hamilton with an impressive fastest lap of 1m 18.341s and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen (+0.123s) in third.

Hamilton caught the eye of the stewards for failing to re-join the track correctly after running wide at Turn one, the reigning world champion was reprimanded by the stewards, but remains second fastest of the session.

The dusty conditions made it a less than ideal start to home-town hero Sergio Perez’s weekend, the Mexican spun off and went backward into the wall at the final turn, mimicking Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc’s spin just moments before in the first 10 minutes of practice.

Perez’s emerged from the garage 26 minutes later, recovering with a rousing lap 1:18.610 to slot into P4, much to the delight of the local fans.

Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly finished in an impressive P5 ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, with Alpine’s Fernanado Alonso (P6) nosing ahead of Charles Leclerc’s late attempt to take P7.

Alonso’s teammate Esteban Ocon rounded out the top 10 in the sister Alpine ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel in P10.   

Full results

1 77 Valtteri Bottas MERCEDES 1:18.341 28 (laps)
2 44 Lewis Hamilton MERCEDES 1:18.417 +0.076s 24
3 33 Max Verstappen RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:18.464 +0.123s 28
4 11 Sergio Perez RED BULL RACING HONDA 1:18.610 +0.269s 20
5 10 Pierre Gasly ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:18.985 +0.644s 23
6 55 Carlos Sainz FERRARI 1:19.463 +1.122s 26
7 14 Fernando Alonso ALPINE RENAULT 1:19.656 +1.315s 26
8 16 Charles Leclerc FERRARI 1:19.667 +1.326s 20
9 31 Esteban Ocon ALPINE RENAULT 1:19.759 +1.418s 20
10 5 Sebastian Vettel ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:19.858 +1.517s 27
11 22 Yuki Tsunoda ALPHATAURI HONDA 1:20.011 +1.670s 30
12 7 Kimi Räikkönen ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 1:20.026 +1.685s 26
13 18 Lance Stroll ASTON MARTIN MERCEDES 1:20.030 +1.689s 27
14 3 Daniel Ricciardo MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:20.273 +1.932s 25
15 4 Lando Norris MCLAREN MERCEDES 1:20.301 +1.960s 26
16 99 Antonio Giovinazzi ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI 1:20.344 +2.003s 27
17 63 George Russell WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:20.517 +2.176s 23
18 6 Nicholas Latifi WILLIAMS MERCEDES 1:21.580 +3.239s 23
19 47 Mick Schumacher HAAS FERRARI 1:22.144 +3.803s 27
20 9 Nikita Mazepin HAAS FERRARI 1:22.819 +4.478s 24