As the Mexico City weekend gets under way Sainz leads Ferrari 1-2

The main noise reverberating around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, however, was the sound of the V6 hybrid engines of Sebastian Vettel.

Carlos Sainz in a photo (Image: Twitter)
By Niranjan Shivalkar | Oct 29, 2022 | 3 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

In FP1, Ferrari‘s Carlos Sainz set the early pace of the Mexico City Grand Prix weekend, leading teammate Charles Leclerc by 0.046s and finishing ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen. Political commotion dominated Friday morning in Mexico, as Red Bull and then Aston Martin reached agreements with the FIA over 2021 cost cap violations. The main noise reverberating around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez at 13:00 local time, however, was the sound of the V6 hybrid engines as Sebastian Vettel, bedecked in a tribute helmet to the late Red Bull co-owner Dietrich Mateschitz led the drivers out on track. 

The newbies 

There were a total of five FP1 swap-ins among them: Pietro Fittipaldi took Kevin Magnussen’s place at Haas, Logan Sargeant replaced Alex Albon at Williams, Jack Doohan made his FP1 debut for Alpine (Esteban Ocon stepped aside), Liam Lawson drove Yuki Tsunoda’s AlphaTauri, and Nyck de Vries, who will be driving for AlphaTauri next year, replaced George Russell at Mercedes. 

Perez at home 

Fresh from their constructors’ victory in Austin, Red Bull‘s Verstappen and local hero Perez set the early benchmarks on the hard tyres, with Verstappen three-tenths faster than his teammate, confirming that there would be no freebies for Sergio Perez this weekend in his pursuit of a maiden home win. When the soft tyres were fitted, it was Ferrari who turned the tables on the Bulls, with Carlos Sainz clocking a 1m 20.707s lap, narrowly ahead of Leclerc, with the Red Bull pair setting identical times in P3 and P4, Perez ahead of Verstappen but both 0.120s behind Sainz. Verstappen, meanwhile, would experience an unusual spin on his soft-shod out-lap, Perhaps caught off guard by the decreased air density at this 2,250m above sea level track. 

Read more: After Red Bull punished by FIA for breaching F1 cost cap Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said not worth the ‘reputational damage’

The Mid-sector 

Lewis Hamilton waited until the end to take P5, ahead of sixth-placed Fernando Alonso – who had his P7 result from Austin reinstated overnight after lengthy deliberation – and Valtteri Bottas, who took P7 here ahead of Lando Norris, Pierre Gasly, and Sebastian Vettel. Daniel Ricciardo took P11 after overcoming brake issues and a near-miss with a Mercedes in the Foro Sol stadium section, ahead of Zhou Guanyu, whose session was cut short when he stopped at the end of the pit lane.

Stroll ahead of Schumacher and Latifi 

Lance Stroll finished 13th, ahead of Mick Schumacher’s Haas and Nicholas Latifi’s Williams. Unsurprisingly, the FP1 stand-ins rounded out the top three, despite a number of confounding variables. Liam Lawson was the ‘leader’ of that group in P16, but his session ended a few minutes early after his AlphaTauri ceased on track, introducing a red flag that ended the session for everyone. 

He was ahead of Sergeant and De Vries, who commended Mercedes for his time with the team before exiting for AlphaTauri in 2023, while Doohan and Fittipaldi would also face difficulties. Doohan came in early due to “anomalies’ ‘ on his power unit, while Fittipaldi carried out a previous red flag after halting out on track due to an MGU-K issue. So, in Mexico City, it was Ferrari who did strike first.