F1: Russell leads Mercedes 1-2 in final Mexico City GP practice

#63 Mercedes driver George Russell turned a lap of 1m18.399s to top his teammate Lewis Hamilton by 0.144s to give Mercedes a 1-2 in the final practice for the Mexico City GP and making them favorites to win the pole later this afternoon.

Mercedes’ started on the front row last year but when the green flag dropped Max Verstappen dusted them in Turn 1 and never looked back.

Verstappen was 3rd quick in the final practice but his #1 Red Bull Honda was 0.477s off the pace of Russell’s Mercedes.

Charles Leclerc was 4th in the #16 Ferrari after crashing on Friday while Sergio Perez rounded out the top-5 in the 2nd Red Bull Honda, 0.842s behind.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was 6th in the #55 Ferrari, 0.902s back

So it is advantage to Mercedes in final practice, with Russel topping the session from Hamilton. Those two had a decent gap to the rest, with Verstappen third and Leclerc fourth.

Lando Norris wound up ‘best of the rest’ for McLaren ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon. Williams might be worth keeping an eye on later, given how good their straight line speed has been all season.

Practice 3 Results