Mexican GP 2023
OCTOBER 27, 2023
Practice 1 Report - Verstappen tops practice
© Williams
By Peter Habicht
Max Verstappen was quickest in free practice for Red Bull-Honda at the high speed Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit this afternoon with a 1m19.718s lap, nearly 0.1s ahead of the Williams-Mercedes Alex Albon and 0.3s ahead of teammate and hometown favorite Sergio Perez.
McLaren and Ferrari alternated the next four positions with Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc, and Oscar Piastri leading Carlos Sainz, whose Ferrari spent half the session in the garage to deal with a hydraulic issue.
Daniel Ricciardo was next quickest for AlphaTauri, which ran well despite losing what appeared to be part of a heat shield from the right hand side of the car about ten minutes into the session. Esteban Ocon was ninth in the order, followed by Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, the Mercedes GP of Lewis Hamilton, the Haas-Ferrari of Nico Hulkenberg, Alfa Romeo’s Guanyu Zhou and Williams-Mercedes' Logan Sargeant.
Several teams ran Formula 2 talent behind the wheel today as part of Formula 1’s efforts to get upcoming drivers into a seat, with Oliver Bearman driving for Haas and besting Fernando Alonso’s time. Isack Hadjar was next fastest driving for AlphaTauri, followed by Jack Doohan for Alpine, and Frederik Vestri for Mercedes.
Formula 2 points leader Theo Pourchaire did appear on track in Valtteri Bottas’ Alfa Romeo, but did not set a time due to trouble with his car.
Free practice two begins at 4p.