Vesti fastest rookie, Iwasa impresses on mediums as Leclerc tops Mexico City FP1
Ten rookies, one Ferrari on top: Vesti beats Hamilton to third on softs, Iwasa is fifth and fastest of all on the medium tyre
Result, 1 November: Max Verstappen won the Mexico City Grand Prix ahead of Lewis Hamilton, and Kimi Antonelli finished third to become the 2026 Formula 1 world champion. Full classification: Mexico City Grand Prix 2026 results. Our report: Verstappen wins as Antonelli is crowned.
Frederik Vesti was the fastest of the ten rookies in first practice for the Mexico City Grand Prix on Friday, third overall in George Russell’s Mercedes. Charles Leclerc topped the session for Ferrari with a 1:18.128, 0.659 seconds clear of Kimi Antonelli, who was only 0.074 seconds quicker than the stand-in in the sister car.
Who was driving whose car, and why: ten F1 stand-ins for Mexico City practice. Start times for the rest of the weekend: Mexico City Grand Prix 2026 start times.
Vesti third on softs, Iwasa fifth on mediums
On the timesheet Vesti was the best rookie, 0.252 seconds ahead of Ayumu Iwasa in Max Verstappen’s Red Bull. The tyres tell a different story. RNT followed the session on the official live timing: Vesti set his best lap on the soft tyre, Iwasa set his on the medium, and no driver on mediums went faster than Iwasa. Fifth overall on the harder compound, in a car he was handed for one hour, was the most eye-catching lap of the session.
Vesti still had a strong Friday. Third place put him ahead of Lewis Hamilton by five thousandths of a second and within a tenth of Antonelli, who returned to the car a day after Mercedes said he was recovering from a viral illness.
Ferrari the only team without a stand-in
Ten of the eleven teams ran a rookie, so only Ferrari kept both regular drivers in the car for the full hour. Leclerc and Hamilton finished first and fourth. Behind Iwasa, Nikola Tsolov was the next rookie in twelfth for Racing Bulls, followed by Gabriele Minì (14th, Alpine), Ryo Hirakawa (15th, Haas) and Leonardo Fornaroli (17th, McLaren). Jak Crawford, Luke Browning, Freddie Slater and Colton Herta filled four of the last five places, with Herta 22nd in the Cadillac.
Mexico City FP1 results
| Pos | No. | Driver | Team | Time / gap | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:18.128 | 29 |
| 2 | 12 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | +0.659s | 30 |
| 3 | 72 | Frederik Vesti (R) | Mercedes | +0.733s | 24 |
| 4 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | +0.738s | 25 |
| 5 | 36 | Ayumu Iwasa (R) | Red Bull Racing | +0.985s | 23 |
| 6 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | +1.082s | 33 |
| 7 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | +1.229s | 29 |
| 8 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | +1.248s | 30 |
| 9 | 87 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | +1.284s | 28 |
| 10 | 41 | Arvid Lindblad | Racing Bulls | +1.350s | 30 |
| 11 | 6 | Isack Hadjar | Red Bull Racing | +1.417s | 21 |
| 12 | 91 | Nikola Tsolov (R) | Racing Bulls | +1.476s | 29 |
| 13 | 27 | Nico Hülkenberg | Audi | +1.480s | 27 |
| 14 | 62 | Gabriele Minì (R) | Alpine | +1.818s | 22 |
| 15 | 50 | Ryo Hirakawa (R) | Haas | +1.854s | 30 |
| 16 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | +1.878s | 31 |
| 17 | 67 | Leonardo Fornaroli (R) | McLaren | +2.107s | 25 |
| 18 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | Cadillac | +2.267s | 31 |
| 19 | 34 | Jak Crawford (R) | Aston Martin | +2.675s | 15 |
| 20 | 46 | Luke Browning (R) | Williams | +2.741s | 33 |
| 21 | 98 | Freddie Slater (R) | Audi | +2.817s | 14 |
| 22 | 25 | Colton Herta (R) | Cadillac | +3.237s | 30 |
(R) = rookie in first practice. Gaps to the fastest time. Source: formula1.com, Practice 1 classification. Tyre information: RNT, from the official live timing.
Our read
We expected Ferrari to be strong at 2,200 metres, and a gap of more than six tenths over the championship leader backs that up. With ten cars in rookie hands the order behind Leclerc says little yet. Iwasa’s lap is the one we would take away from this hour: fastest of everyone on the medium tyre, in a Red Bull he does not race. Red Bull will have learned more about its long-run pace from that than from any single soft-tyre lap.
Second practice at 16:00 local, qualifying on Saturday
All regular drivers are back for second practice at 16:00 local time (22:00 UK, 23:00 CET, 18:00 ET). Qualifying is on Saturday at 15:00 local (21:00 UK, 22:00 CET, 17:00 ET), and the race starts on Sunday 1 November at 14:00 local, 20:00 UK, 21:00 CET and 15:00 ET. Antonelli can clinch the title on Sunday: the 2026 championship permutations. Results follow on our Mexico City Grand Prix 2026 results page.
Who impressed you more in Mexico City FP1: Vesti on the soft tyre or Iwasa on the medium? Tell us in the comments.
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