F1: Verstappen tops opening Mexico City GP practice

Triple F1 World Champion Max Verstappen led opening practice for the 2023 Mexico City GP with a lap of 1m19.718s in his Red Bull Honda.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Verstappen’s time was over 1 second faster than last year’s top time, the Dutchman looked in serene form, going fast on both the medium and the soft compound tire.

In a surprise, Williams driver Albon Albon came closest to Verstappen’s time with a 1m19.813s, just 0095s back, the Williams flying in the thin Mexico City air..

Sergio Perez was 3rd quick in the second Red Bull Honda, 0.297s behind to the cheers of this rabid Mexican fans

Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc rounded out the top-5.

The second McLaren of Oscar Piastri was 6th, having never driven here before.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was seventh, ahead of Alpha Tauri’s Daniel Ricciardo, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll.

Mercedes have had a quiet session. Fred Vesti is down in P19 with 20 laps under his belt, having run the prototype, soft and hard tire. As for Hamilton, he’s P11 and 1.006s off the lead having run the same compounds as his temporary teammate.

The teams all had a set of Pirelli test tires to try during the session, which meant reading into the times was even more difficult than usual in first practice.

Five teams took the opportunity to use up one of their two mandatory young driver outings.

The fastest of them was Briton Oliver Bearman, a member of the Ferrari driver academy, who impressed in the Haas with 15th fastest time, four places and 0.4secs behind race driver Nico Hulkenberg.

Frenchman Isack Hadjar in the Alpha Tauri was 17th, 1.4secs slower than Ricciardo, ahead of Alpine’s Jack Doohan and Dane Frederik Vesti in the Mercedes.

It was a relatively straightforward session then, no crashes, no one leaving a car embedded in the barriers. Bar that one lump of metal that flew off Ricciardo’s car, out on track it went relatively well for everyone.

Reliability concerns did crop up – a hydraulics issue for Sainz, a brake by wire problem for what is normally Bottas’ car. And some news from the FIA – Tsunoda’s car has been fitted with a raft of new PU components, which means he is set for a grid penalty for Sunday’s race.

Practice 2 begins at 6:00pm Eastern time. Can Verstappen stay on top, or will sandbagging Mercedes challenge him again this weekend?

Mexico City GP Practice 1 Results