George Russell topped first observe on the Mexico Metropolis Grand Prix after a giant crash for Alex Albon halted proceedings simply earlier than the midway mark.
Albon misplaced management of his Williams exiting the left-handed Flip 9 and clattered into the slow-moving Ferrari of Oliver Bearman — substituting for Charles Leclerc within the session — on the method to Flip 10. The collision despatched Albon spinning uncontrolled and into the boundaries on the surface of the observe, whereas Bearman got here to a cease with injury to his front-left wheel.
“Fool,” Albon radioed earlier than getting out of his stricken chassis and returning to the paddock within the medical automotive.
Bearman additionally walked away from the crash unscathed.
It’s fairly the affect 😳
Albon occurs upon Bearman’s Ferrari at pace, clips the entrance left and spins into the wall 💥
Each vehicles will play no additional half within the session.#F1 #MexicoGP pic.twitter.com/rPgYMh7G0w
— System 1 (@F1) October 25, 2024
With the session resumed and the sector switching to delicate tires, Russell fired in three purple sectors to set the session’s quickest time at 1m17.998s. Carlos Sainz was his closest challenger within the final remaining Ferrari, pinching the quickest time within the remaining sector however ending 0.317s off the tempo.
Yuki Tsunoda accomplished the highest three for RB at 0.701s adrift however one place forward of Max Verstappen, who ended his session six minutes early with an influence unit downside, reporting “no energy” from his Honda motor as he limped again to pit lane.
Nico Hulkenberg was fifth for Haas forward of Oscar Piastri and Esteban Ocon.
Valtteri Bottas was a lofty eighth in his Sauber forward of RB’s Liam Lawson and residential favourite Sergio Perez, who accomplished the highest 10 at 1.096s off the tempo.
Franco Colapinto was eleventh in his Williams automotive bearing a brand new yellow-topped colour scheme forward of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the best positioned of the 5 stand-in drivers in motion in FP1.
The Italian, substituting for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, was twelfth quickest and 1.2s slower than pace-setter Russell in his first grand prix session for the reason that Italian Grand Prix, the place he crashed off form simply minutes into his F1 debut.
Fellow observe stand-in Patricio O’Ward, the Mexican IndyCar driver, took the wheel of Lando Norris’s McLaren to set the Thirteenth-best time.
Antonelli and O’Ward had been two of 5 observe drivers in motion in FP1, all of whom misplaced seat time to twin crimson flags within the first half of the session, the primary having been to clear particles from the circuit within the opening minutes.
The others had been Felipe Drugovich, who kicked off Fernando Alonso’s four-hundredth grand prix weekend within the Spaniard’s Aston Martin, and Ferrari junior Robert Shwartzman, who accomplished the session in Zhou Guanyu’s Ferrari-powered Sauber, which ended the session 18th and nineteenth respectively forward of solely the broken Bearman.
Between the 2 pairs of stand-ins had been Kevin Magnussen in 14th forward of Pierre Gasly — who reported an unidentified burning odor from his automotive early within the hour — Lance Stroll and the crashed-out Albon.
