Verstappen takes over at the top in Mexico FP2 , ahead of Leclerc and Antonelli
Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen went quickest in the second practice session for the 2025 FIA Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix, beating Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Mercedes Kimi Antonelli, as title rival McLaren pair Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri finished fourth and 12th respectively.
At the start of the session, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli was one of the first on track but the Italian appeared to have an issue as was told to limp him to the pit lane. The problem was soon rectified, however, and when he emerged again, he posted a time of 1:19.444 to get things underway.
FP1’s fastest man then moved to the top of the order with a lap of 1:18.669 set on Medium tyres. That put him 0.012s ahead of Lando Norris who was back in the car after handing his car to Pato O’Ward for FP1. The Briton was, however, complaining of misfires on his car.
Leclerc then lowered the benchmark to 1:18.353, going 0.328s clear of Norris who had a brief off-track moment at Turn 11.
Behind the top two Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton, who had been replaced by Antonio Fuoco in FP1, slotted into third place, while Max Verstappen, who had given his car to Arvid Lindblad in the opening session was fourth, ahead of championship leader Oscar Piastri.
Williams’ Alex Albon and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll then made the switch to Soft tyres signalling the start of the qualifying simulations.
Albon leapt up to seventh on the timesheet with his Soft tyres run but Leclerc was also out on Softs and the Monegasque racer posted a lap of 1:17.545 to consolidate his position at the top of the timesheet. Norris and Piastri attempted to challenge the Ferrari driver’s time but the former made a mistake and Sector 2 and the latter’s final sector was poor and both ended their laps more than six tenths off P1.
Verstappen, however, was making no mistakes and the winner of last weekend’s US Grand Prix vaulted to the top of the order with a lap of 1:17.392 that put him 0.153s ahead of Leclerc. Norris went again and crossed the line 0.251s off Verstappen but he was beaten to P3 on the timesheet by Antonelli who popped in a lap of 1:17.566 to steal P3.
Fifth place went to Hamilton who finished just under five hundredths of a second off Norris, while Mercedes’ George Russell was sixth ahead Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda. Fernando Alonso was eighth for Aston Martin and he was separated from 10th-placed team-mate Lance Stroll by Williams driver Carlos Sainz.
While Norris managed to recover from his scrappy first run on Softs to take P4, Piastri did not put in a second run and he finished in P12 behind Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson.
Once the qualifying sims were complete the field moved to longer runs. With Pirelli gapping the compounds this weekend, providing the C2 as the Hard and the C4 and C5 as the Medium and Soft drivers either focused on seeing how far the C5 might go over a longer stint or explored the performance of the C4 Medium as teams evaluated the possibility of avoiding the more durable but slower C2 for Sunday’s race.
2025 FIA Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix – Free Practice 2
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:17.392 34 200.206
2 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:17.545 0.153 32 199.811
3 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:17.566 0.174 27 199.757
4 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:17.643 0.251 31 199.559
5 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:17.692 0.300 30 199.433
6 George Russell Mercedes 1:17.829 0.437 33 199.082
7 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:17.883 0.491 31 198.944
8 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:17.938 0.546 29 198.804
9 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes 1:17.939 0.547 34 198.801
10 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:17.954 0.562 30 198.763
11 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:18.218 0.826 32 198.092
12 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:18.232 0.840 31 198.057
13 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 1:18.266 0.874 31 197.971
14 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:18.281 0.889 30 197.933
15 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber/Ferrari 1:18.323 0.931 30 197.826
16 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber/Ferrari 1:18.348 0.956 29 197.763
17 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 1:18.442 1.050 34 197.526
18 Franco Colapinto Alpine/Renault 1:18.721 1.329 31 196.826
19 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:18.855 1.463 31 196.492
20 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Renault 1:19.194 1.802 30 195.651
Leclerc leads the way in Mexico FP1
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc set the pace ahead of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Kick Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg in an opening practicing session for the 2025 FIA Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix that featured a host of young driving talent as teams handed test and reserve drivers a free practice outing.
F1’s regulations specify that every full-time driver is required to make way for a rookie – viewed as someone who has started no more than two Grands Prix – in two practice sessions across the 2025 season and in Mexico City nine of the 10 teams made a seat available, with only Kick Sauber fielding both regular race drivers.
And when the green lights went on at the end of the pit lane to signal the start of the session, the rookies wasted no time in making the most of the opportunity with Ferrari’s Antonio Fuoco, Racing Bulls’ Ayumu Iwasa, Williams’ Luke Browning, Mercedes’ Fredrik Vesti, Alpine’s Paul Aron, McLaren’s Pato O’Ward, Aston Martin’s Jak Crawford and Haas’ Ryo Hirakawa taking to the track alongside the more experienced drivers.
It was Haas’ Esteban Ocon who led the way in the opening minutes with the Frenchman posting a lap of 1:21.884 on Medium C4 tyres, 0.055s ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who like most other was on the Hard tyres as teams looked for early data on the C2 chosen for this round by Pirelli.
Piastri beat Ocon’s early P1 time with a lap of 1:21.570 but then Isack Hadjar, also running Medium tyres took his Racing Bulls car to the top of the timesheet with a lap of 1:21.091. Ocon then returned to the top of the order with a lap of 1:20.934. Hadjar briefly returned to top spot, but Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli then jumped to P1 with a lap of 1:20.035.
As the session neared the halfway mark, Piastri bolted on a set of Soft compound C5 Pirelli tyres moved to top spot with a lap of 1:19.035, a full second clear of Antonelli. Leclerc then mirrored the Australian’s tyre choice and he powered past the McLaren driver to take P1 with a lap of 1:18.895 before using a second attempt to improve to 1:18.380m, a tenth ahead of Antonelli. Nico Hülkenberg then put in a strong lap to take P3, 0.380s off top spot.
Piastri hung on to fourth place at the flag ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto in the other Sauber.
Arvid Lindblad, currently lying seventh in the FIA Formula 2 Championship standings and taking over Max Verstappen’s Red Bull Racing RB21 for the session, ended up as the top placed rookie in P6. Behind him, Ocon finished in seventh ahead of current Red Bull Racing driver Yuki Tsunoda, while Franco Colapinto was ninth for Alpine. The top 10 order was rounded out by Williams’ Alex Albon.
With Hadjar in P11 ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, the next best placed rookie was Indycar regular Pato O’Ward who was 13th in Lando Norris’ McLaren. He was followed by Vesti, Aron, Hirakawa, Iwasa, Browning, Crawford and in last place, Fuoco.
2025 FIA Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix – Free Practice 1
1 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:18.380 29 197.683
2 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:18.487 0.107 35 197.413
3 Nico Hülkenberg Sauber/Ferrari 1:18.760 0.380 27 196.729
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:18.784 0.404 31 196.669
5 Gabirel Bortoleto Sauber/Ferrari 1:18.916 0.536 28 196.340
6 Arvid Lindblad Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:18.997 0.617 26 196.139
7 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 1:19.038 0.658 29 196.037
8 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull/Honda RBPT 1:19.090 0.710 29 195.908
9 Franco Colapinto Alpine/Renault 1:19.331 0.951 28 195.313
10 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:19.384 1.004 33 195.182
11 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:19.409 1.029 32 195.121
12 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:19.472 1.092 26 194.966
13 Patricio O'Ward McLaren/Mercedes 1:19.680 1.300 30 194.457
14 Frederik Vesti Mercedes 1:19.689 1.309 32 194.435
15 Paul Aron Alpine/Renault 1:19.862 1.482 29 194.014
16 Ryō Hirakawa Haas/Ferrari 1:20.073 1.693 27 193.503
17 Ayumu Iwasa Racing Bulls/Honda RBPT 1:20.153 1.773 29 193.310
18 Luke Browning Williams/Mercedes 1:20.310 1.930 31 192.932
19 Jak Crawford Aston Martin/Mercedes 1:20.371 1.991 29 192.785
20 Antonio Fuoco Ferrari 1:20.854 2.474 29 191.634
