Spanish Formula 1 driver Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) was fastest in the first free practice session of this Friday’s Mexican Grand Prix, making contact with sixth-ranked Fernando Alonso (Alpine), with minimal gap between bests.
Sainz launched an attack on the Hermanos Rodriguez Autodrome in the same way he did in Austin last week. The Madrid man had already warned in front of Las Americas that he had between eyebrows to celebrate victory in the final stage of the World Cup, and so he pushed, though the first corner of the race on Yankee soil. In his pole position was reduced.
The Ferrari driver, who also dominated last Friday, finished at the top of the Mexican FP1 with a time of 1:20.707, ahead of his teammates Charles Leclerc and Sergio Pérez (Red Bull). World champion Max Verstappen (Red Bull) was fourth, having saved more than one card like every week, scoring on Sunday.
On a short track with minimal margin, a good memory for the Austrian team, Mexican Pérez would try to win at home with runners-up, and ‘Mad Max’, preventing Ferrari from breaking the winning drought. , with July being the last . British Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) finished fifth, while Spanish Fernando Alonso was sixth and squeezed with a soft.
The double world champion, who began his seventh-place recovery in Austin on Friday after the FIA cleared his appeal for sanction, finished third in a promising season. There were also two red flags in FP1 for Pietro Fittipaldi’s Haas and, three minutes before the end, Liam Lawson’s Alpha Tauri.
