F1 Mexico GP live commentary and updates - FP3
Follow along for updates from Formula 1's final practice session ahead of Mexico City Grand Prix qualifying
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We'll close it out there for FP3 - but we'll be back to prepare for qualifying. Thanks for joining us - and we'll see you later!
It's all very finely poised for qualifying. Top 13 all within a second, but you sense there's more to come from those just outside of that boundary.
Verstappen gets one final quick lap in, but remains sixth - 0.609s down on Norris.
The final moment elapse, as cars beat the chequered flag to leave the pitlane - purely to get some end-of-session practice starts in.
Lando Norris ends the session fastest with a 1m16.633s, 0.345s up on Hamilton in second.
Hadjar's also put £2 in the swear jar after encountering Gasly-shaped traffic. Leclerc was on a personal best but backed out in the final sector.
Albon might have some powertrain issues - "I've got no power", he reports.
Verstappen improves on his following qualifying simulation, but he's still 0.639s down on Norris' earlier benchmark. "No grip, front and rear," he says.
Albon's not having fun on the brakes, as he goes deep at Turn 4. Sainz has a similar moment at Turn 1 - the Williams looks unsettled into braking zones.
Bortoleto goes up to 10th, as Russell comes around to do another soft-tyre tour.
Piastri moved up to third, but he's still 0.599s off Norris - and Russell relegates the Australian down a further position.
Hamilton finds a healthy margin to post a 1m16.978s, 0.275s up on Antonelli. Norris then finds a purple first sector, a purple second sector...
...and it's a purple third sector, as he now goes up on Hamilton by 0.345s.
Leclerc doesn't set any purple sectors, but stitches a lap together to set a 1m17.306s - the soft tyre runs are all coming in now.
Antonelli then sets a 1m17.253s to go quickest. Verstappen's on a lap, but a smidgen down on the Italian teen in the opening sector. But it's all about keeping those tyres alive for the final bit of the lap - and it's a tenth up in sector two.
Verstappen only goes fourth, however - perhaps running out of tyre juice in the Foro Sol.
Hadjar hits the top with a 1m17.396s, just a fraction ahead of Tsunoda.
But Piastri then finds a 1m17.315s to go quickest - 0.081s up on Hadjar. Russell goes up to third.
Albon's on a quick lap on the softs - we might be gearing up to some quali sims now as the bulk of the field hits the pitlane.
Two session bests in the opening sectors - but a HUGE lock-up (again) in the Foro Sol undoes a lap that surely would have put him top.
Antonelli does a purple middle sector, but then bundles over the kerb at Turn 12 and loses time in the final sector.
Russell goes top with a 1m17.892s on mediums - 0.123s up on Norris.
Leclerc gets within 0.06s of Norris' time with the best middle sector - but it's only good enough for fifth - that's how close it is.
Bortoleto has a snap though Turn 11 and skitters across the run-off. Albon then has a lock-up through the stadium. The drivers are pushing a bit more, and Hadjar goes sixth - 0.065s off the pace.
The top 17 are all within a second. Only Stroll, Gasly, and Colapinto fall out of that particular bracket. The top 10 is all within 0.255s, for reference.
That's incredibly close. Everything to play for.
"Just not getting this medium tyre to work, just sliding all over the place," Russell says.
Verstappen's doing some longer runs on the mediums to assess the changes from yesterday. Russell, meanwhile, gets his mediums into some kind of window and goes up to third - matching Sainz's time.
Norris goes top with a 1m18.015s on the same medium tyres, 0.013s up on Sainz. Session-best final sector so far to conclude that lap.
Piastri is inching closer to the sharper end of the field, but he's still 0.4s off his team-mate's pace.
Bit of a traffic jam in the stadium there - Russell backs off to give himself some space.
Hadjar and Lawson are up into the top six with laps on the soft.
Norris does another lap and he's now just 0.01s down on Verstappen in second.
Piastri doesn't look like he's thrown everything at that lap, and only goes 12th.
Hadjar encounters a McLaren in the Foro Sol, of which he takes a dim view.
Norris has a lock-up at Turn 4 on his first attempt at a lap, after coming up through a pack of traffic. Hamilton does the same and slaloms through the escape road.
Leclerc does another lap and goes up to third - he lost time in the final sector, sliding through the Foro Sol.
Piastri now starts a lap, and the McLaren looks tentative in those opening corners.
Sainz logs a 1m18.028s on his first tour with a set of softs, 0.023s up on Verstappen.
Tsunoda's on-track now, as is Norris. Piastri also joins the fray.
Bortoleto does a 1m18.783s on his first tour with the mediums to go fastest, although Verstappen has another go and posts a 1m18.051s.
Leclerc moves up to second on his opener, 0.678s off - and just 0.001s ahead of Hamilton.
It's another lock-up for Hamilton, this time a little earlier than last time - he went off at Turn 1, and had to escape across the grass. Hardly the most auspicious start to the session.
Leclerc and Bearman hit the track, as does Ocon.
Hulkenberg's got a tickle of smoke emerging from the rear of his car - oil overfill, or a problem? He's continuing out there, so it's probably fine.
Hamilton goes deep at Turn 4 as he can't quite cope with the inertia into the corner. He's backed out of that lap, on a circuit that's becoming a bit more populated as the Saubers hit the road.
Hamilton is now on track, as is Colapinto. Verstappen starts a lap to assess last night's set-up changes.
It's a 1m18.914s as our first benchmark.
Still little other action beyond the Aston Martin tyre prep - none of the other drivers appear to be in much of a hurry to go anywhere, although Verstappen's gone out on a set of inters.
Hamilton puts his gloves on, but he remains ensconced within the garage.
FP3 is open for business
The clock has started, and Lance Stroll is our first taker. Alonso also hits the road - presumably, Aston are doing some tyre scrubs on the open circuit.
Drivers are getting belted up in their cars, ready to take to the track. We just saw Andrea Stella distributing fist-bumps in the McLaren garage, hiding behind some oversized shades.
Is that a sign of confidence in the McLaren camp? FP2's race pace suggested that the orange cars looked good on the longer runs.
Weather watch
Not long now until we get going in Mexico - hopefully the track's a little bit cleaner than yesterday.
23C air temperature out there today, 44C track temperature.
30 minutes until FP3
This'll be our first glimpse of the 20 cars post-overnight tweaks and discoveries - the two predominant questions are thus: has McLaren found some one-lap pace, and has Red Bull uncovered some race pace?
And where do Ferrari and Mercedes stand? Friday looked promising in both facets, but have they made a step forward?
Oscar Piastri, McLaren
Photo by: James Sutton / LAT Images via Getty Images
Friday practice analysis: Red Bull quick in quali, but race pace poor - McLaren vice versa
Friday practice recap
FP1
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc went fastest in opening practice for the Mexico Grand Prix, as nine rookies got valuable Formula 1 track time, including an eye-catching outing for Arvid Lindblad at Red Bull.
In a session that was sat out by the likes title contenders Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, as well as seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, due to teams seeking to fulfil sporting regulations regarding young drivers, Leclerc outpaced his rivals with a 1m18.380s marker.
FP1
| Cla | Driver | # | Chassis | Engine | Laps | Time | Interval | Tyres | km/h | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  C. Leclerc Ferrari |
16 |  |
Ferrari | Ferrari | 29 |
1'18.380 |
S | 197.683 | |||
| 2 |  A. Antonelli Mercedes |
12 |  |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 35 |
+0.107 1'18.487 |
0.107 | S | 197.413 | ||
| 3 |  N. Hulkenberg Sauber |
27 |  |
Sauber | Ferrari | 27 |
+0.380 1'18.760 |
0.273 | S | 196.729 | ||
| 4 |  O. Piastri McLaren |
81 |  |
McLaren | Mercedes | 31 |
+0.404 1'18.784 |
0.024 | S | 196.669 | ||
| 5 |  G. Bortoleto Sauber |
5 |  |
Sauber | Ferrari | 28 |
+0.536 1'18.916 |
0.132 | S | 196.340 | ||
| 6 |
A. Lindblad Red Bull Racing
|
36 |  |
Red Bull | Honda | 26 |
+0.617 1'18.997 |
0.081 | S | 196.139 | ||
| 7 |  E. Ocon Haas F1 Team |
31 |  |
Haas | Ferrari | 29 |
+0.658 1'19.038 |
0.041 | S | 196.037 | ||
| 8 |  Y. Tsunoda Red Bull Racing |
22 |  |
Red Bull | Red Bull | 29 |
+0.710 1'19.090 |
0.052 | S | 195.908 | ||
| 9 |  F. Colapinto Alpine |
43 |  |
Alpine | Renault | 28 |
+0.951 1'19.331 |
0.241 | S | 195.313 | ||
| 10 |  A. Albon Williams |
23 |  |
Williams | Mercedes | 33 |
+1.004 1'19.384 |
0.053 | M | 195.182 | ||
| View full results | ||||||||||||
FP2
Max Verstappen was fastest in second practice for the Mexico Grand Prix, driving Red Bull’s updated Formula 1 challenger, with championship leader Oscar Piastri down in 12th.
FP1 pacesetter Leclerc was again quickest early on with mediums, lapping in 1m18.669s before improving his marker down to 1m18.353s, which made him about three tenths quicker than anyone else at that stage.
Leclerc then set the pace on softs with a 1m17.545s, but Verstappen outpaced him by 0.153s, setting a 1m17.392s reference.
The Red Bull driver then embarked on a 12-lap run on 12-lap-old mediums, near the end of which he was upset about his machinery’s handling. “It’s terrible, I have no grip, it’s like driving on ice,” he lamented on the radio.
FP2
| Cla | Driver | # | Chassis | Engine | Laps | Time | Interval | Tyres | km/h | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  M. Verstappen Red Bull Racing |
1 |  |
Red Bull | Red Bull | 34 |
1'17.392 |
S | 200.206 | |||
| 2 | C. Leclerc Ferrari |
16 |  |
Ferrari | Ferrari | 32 |
+0.153 1'17.545 |
0.153 | S | 199.811 | ||
| 3 | A. Antonelli Mercedes |
12 |  |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 27 |
+0.174 1'17.566 |
0.021 | S | 199.757 | ||
| 4 |  L. Norris McLaren |
4 | |
McLaren | Mercedes | 31 |
+0.251 1'17.643 |
0.077 | S | 199.559 | ||
| 5 | L. Hamilton Ferrari |
44 |  |
Ferrari | Ferrari | 30 |
+0.300 1'17.692 |
0.049 | S | 199.433 | ||
| 6 | G. Russell Mercedes |
63 |  |
Mercedes | Mercedes | 33 |
+0.437 1'17.829 |
0.137 | S | 199.082 | ||
| 7 | Y. Tsunoda Red Bull Racing |
22 |  |
Red Bull | Red Bull | 31 |
+0.491 1'17.883 |
0.054 | S | 198.944 | ||
| 8 |  F. Alonso Aston Martin Racing |
14 |  |
Aston Martin | Mercedes | 29 |
+0.546 1'17.938 |
0.055 | S | 198.804 | ||
| 9 | C. Sainz Williams |
55 |  |
Williams | Mercedes | 34 |
+0.547 1'17.939 |
0.001 | S | 198.801 | ||
| 10 |  L. Stroll Aston Martin Racing |
18 | |
Aston Martin | Mercedes | 30 |
+0.562 1'17.954 |
0.015 | S | 198.763 | ||
| View full results | ||||||||||||
'Wolff said the same in 2021' about Red Bull development - Marko
Helmut Marko dismissed McLaren’s assertion that Red Bull is sacrificing its 2026 preparations to develop this year’s car for longer, stating 'Toto Wolff said the same in 2021' when it stormed to both Formula 1 titles the following season.
While McLaren has long halted the development of its 2025 car and put all focus on the new regulations for 2026, Red Bull continues to introduce upgrades.
Following the new floor in Monza and a revised front wing in Singapore, the team arrived in Mexico with yet another modified floor. The package also included tweaks to the bodywork to improve cooling - always a delicate issue in the thin air at Mexico City’s high altitude.
FP3 in Mexico - T-minus 57 minutes
Hello everyone, and thanks for joining our live feed of everything that happens in Mexico! Actually, it's not quite everything - mainly just the F1 bits.
FP3 will be underway in just under an hour's time.
Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Andy Hone/ LAT Images via Getty Images
