MEXICO CITY — Charles Leclerc set the fastest time in the opening practice session for the Mexico City Grand Prix on Friday, clocking a 1:18.380 in his Ferrari to lead a session dominated by substitute and rookie drivers — with Red Bull’s 18-year-old British protégé Arvid Lindblad emerging as the standout newcomer.
With Formula 1 regulations requiring teams to field inexperienced drivers in at least two first practice sessions per season, nine of the 10 constructors chose Friday’s opening hour at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez to fulfill the obligation. That meant championship heavyweights Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton were all absent from the session.
Leclerc, whose Ferrari team won in Mexico City last year, edged Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli by just 0.107 seconds at the top of the timesheet. Nico Hulkenberg was third for Sauber, with championship leader Oscar Piastri — the only title contender on track — fourth in his McLaren, 0.380 seconds off the pace. Piastri, whose points lead has shrunk to 14 over Norris and 40 over a resurgent Verstappen, also had a brief off-track moment when he switched to soft tires.
But the session’s most compelling subplot belonged to Lindblad, who slotted into sixth place — the only rookie to finish in the top 12 — after taking over Verstappen’s Red Bull for his second Friday appearance of the season. The British teenager, who competes in Formula 2, outpaced regular Red Bull driver Yuki Tsunoda by just under a tenth of a second.
“He did a very good job. It’s so difficult to jump in. The pace is there, so not much to argue against that,” said Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies.
Mekies noted that the team had deliberately kept Lindblad on lower fuel loads to simplify his task. “We took the decision to leave Arvid on low-ish fuel to not give him the complication of high and low fuel,” he said.
Lindblad, widely tipped for a race seat at Red Bull’s junior outfit Racing Bulls in 2026, watched by Verstappen from the pit wall as he and Tsunoda also gave a track debut to the latest round of upgrades on the RB21 — including a further iteration of the floor package first introduced at Monza in September, which has been credited with reviving the team’s form.
McLaren’s IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward, the only Mexican driver in action at any point during the weekend following Sergio Perez’s absence from the grid this season, was the next-best rookie in 13th. Frederik Vesti (Mercedes) and Paul Aron (Alpine) followed in 14th and 15th, while British F2 race winner Luke Browning rounded out the field in 18th for Williams.
The nine race drivers who sat out the session were set to return for Practice Two later Friday evening.
