Formula 1 News: Leclerc tops Mexico City GP Practice 1

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc (pictured) turned a lap of 1m18.380s to top opening practice for the 2025 Mexico City GP at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

In a session that saw nine regular drivers replaced by promising young drivers, their run plans were geared toward race setups rather than outright speed.

The track for Practice 1 was not rubbered in, so the times are several seconds slower than we will see come qualifying on Saturday. For certain, no one is showing their hand yet.

Kimi Antonelli was 2nd fastest for Mercedes, 0.107s behind Leclerc.

Nico Hulkenberg was third for Sauber, 0.380s behind Leclerc.

Points leader Oscar Piastri was 4th in the #81 McLaren, 0.404s behind Leclerc. More importantly, Piastri appeared to be choking, making mistakes, and not atop the charts despite having the best car.

Gabriel Bortoleto rounded out the top-5 in the second Sauber, 0.536s behind Leclerc.

Arvind Lindblad was impressive for sure here, a tenth faster than Yuki Tsunoda, with those two and Lawson supposedly fighting for the seats at Racing Bulls and the one seat at Red Bull alongside Verstappen.

Lindblad is impressing for sure here, a tenth faster than Tsunoda, with those two and Lawson supposedly fighting for the seats at Racing Bulls and the one seat at Red Bull alongside Verstappen.

Of the rest of the FP1 rookies, IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward led the remainder of that pack, ahead of Vesti, Aron, Hirakawa, Iwasa, Browning, Crawford, and Fuoco.

2025 Mexico City GP Practice 1 Results