Mexico City GP: Charles Leclerc fastest for Ferrari in Practice One as Red Bull protege Arvid Lindblad only rookie driver in top 10

​​​​​​Charles Leclerc set the pace for Ferrari in a first practice session for the Mexico City Grand Prix featuring nine rookie drivers, with Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Lewis Hamilton among the big names to sit it out.

​​​​​​With teams obliged by F1's regulations to run inexperienced drivers in each of their cars in first practice two times during the season, nine of the grid's 10 outfits chose Friday's first hour of running at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez to fulfil one of those sessions.

The top of the timesheet was dominated by race drivers though, with Leclerc fastest for Ferrari, last year's victors in Mexico, on 1:18.380, leading the timesheet by a tenth of a second from Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli.

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Nico Hulkenberg was third for Sauber with championship leader Oscar Piastri fourth in his McLaren. Sauber, the only team to run both their race drivers, also finished fifth fastest with Gabriel Bortoleto.

Piastri was the only one of the three title contenders on track for the weekend's opening hour of running and will hope to have gained useful early data to carry into the rest of the weekend after a series of underwhelming races which have seen his points lead dwindle.

Piastri, who has seen his title lead drop to 14 points over Norris and 40 points over a resurgent Verstappen, finished 0.4s off Leclerc's pace and had a big but brief slide off track when he switched to the soft tyres.

Lindblad catches eye as Red Bull reveal more upgrades

British teenager Arvid Lindblad, who races in F2, took over Verstappen's in-form Red Bull car for his second Friday run-out of the season and was the only rookie to finish in the top 12, in sixth place.

Lindblad outpaced eighth-fastest Yuki Tsunoda in the other Red Bull by just under a tenth of a second, although fuel levels may have been a contributing factor.

"We took the decision to leave Arvid on low-ish fuel to not give him the complication of high and low fuel," said Red Bull team principal Laurent Mekies to Sky Sports F1.

"He did a very good job. It's so difficult to jump in. The pace is there, so not much to argue against that."

The 18-year-old is strongly tipped for a race seat at Racing Bulls, Red Bull's junior team, next season with 2026 decision time seemingly looming at the two outfits.

With Verstappen watching on from Red Bull's pit wall, Lindblad and Tsunoda gave the track debut to the latest round of late-season's upgrades brought to the team's much-improved RB21 car.

The changes for Mexico include a further iteration of the floor the team brought to Monza in September and which has been credited with helping turn around their form.

McLaren's IndyCar driver Pato O'Ward, the only Mexican driver in action at any point of the weekend with Sergio Perez not on the grid this year, was the next-best rookie in 13th place ahead of Mercedes' Frederik Vesti and Alpine's Paul Aron.

Another British race winner in F2, Luke Browning, was 18th fastest in his latest run-out for Williams.

The nine race drivers who sat out the opening hour will return for Practice Two later on Friday night at 11pm, live on Sky Sports F1.

Sky Sports F1's Mexico City GP schedule

Friday October 24
9pm: The F1 Show
10pm: Team Bosses' Press Conference
10.45pm: Mexico City GP Practice Two (session starts at 11pm)*

Saturday October 25
6.15pm: Mexico City GP Practice Three (session starts at 6.30pm)
9pm: Mexico City GP Qualifying build-up*
10pm: MEXICO CITY GP QUALIFYING*

Sunday October 26
6.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Mexico City GP build-up*
8pm: THE MEXICO CITY GRAND PRIX*
10pm: Chequered Flag: Mexico City GP reaction

*also on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1's thrilling title race continues at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez for the Mexico City Grand Prix this weekend, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime

(c) Sky Sports 2025: Mexico City GP: Charles Leclerc fastest for Ferrari in Practice One as Red Bull protege Arvid Lindblad only rookie driver in top 10