F1 News: Russell tops opening practice for 2024 Mexico City GP

Mercedes #63 driver George Russell turned a lap of 1m17.989s to top opening practice for the 2024 Mexico City GP at the 2.674-mile Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Carlos Sainz Jr. got to within 0.317s of Russell’s time in his #55 Ferrari, but the track was so dirty all the times are really not indicative of the true running order.

The session was twice red-flagged as Alex Albon and Oliver Bearman collided at Turn 9. Albon got caught out by a slow moving Bearman and clipped the Ferrari, damaging both cars.

Yuki Tsunoda was a surprise 3rd fastest in his RB and a very dusty and dirty track, 0.701s behind Russell. RB were slower than Haas last weekend – but have started this one well, with Lawson also in the top 10.

“There’s something wrong with the engine, I have no power,” says Verstappen, was 0.841s behind Russell in 4th before his engine issue.

Nico Hulkenberg rounded out the top-5 for Haas, 0.960s behind Russell.

So, advantage Mercedes in Mexico City. That’s the perfect response for them after a very difficult time of it in Austin, but we’ll have to see how Hamilton finds the handling of the W15 here when he gets going a little later on in FP2.

Pirelli are giving the teams some 2025 prototype tires to test out in FP2, and some mandated run plans too.

But those drivers who didn’t take part in FP1 – Hamilton, Leclerc, Norris, Zhou and Alonso – get an extra 30 minutes of running, so the session will actually last 90 minutes in total.

2024 Mexico City GP Practice 1 Results