George Russell topped the times at the end of the opening day of practice for Formula 1’s 2022 Mexican Grand Prix, where Ferrari’s strong start was undone by Charles Leclerc’s FP2 crash during the second in-season Pirelli tyre test in a week.
Ferrari led the way in a 1-2 in opening practice on Friday afternoon, but Leclerc’s off mid-way through the second session – elongated to 90-minutes to allow for the extra running on Pirelli’s 2023 compounds – means Ferrari was left with a long repair job after he badly damaged the rear of his F1-75.
As it took nearly 20 minutes for the barriers to be repaired after his shunt in FP2, the data Pirelli required for its test was reduced. So too was the additional FP2 running on the 2022 tyres afforded to drivers that sat out FP1 in place of rookie drivers.
Nevertheless, this added time that Russell enjoyed will still provide Mercedes with a key advantage against Red Bull and Ferrari. This comes on a weekend where the Silver Arrows squad is hoping the unique high-altitude demands of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez track will mean it can get among F1 2022’s frontrunners for the win.
This, and more, is what we learned at the Mexico City track on Friday.
The story of the day:
In FP1, Sainz and Leclerc led the way – the former topping the times with a 1m20.707s. Sainz had the easier start to the session of the pair as Leclerc missed the early laps getting up to speed on the hard tyres – used by all the rest of the field on the initially very dirty track surface – due to an early puncture.
But Leclerc came back out after 22 minutes of the one-hour practice session immediately using the softs, which he took to the head of the times before Sainz pipped him later on. Leclerc’s FP1 best came on a second flier in a three-lap stint, while Sainz’s only qualifying simulation was his first and only flying effort on the softs.
At Red Bull, which had topped the early slower running on the hards, Perez ended up third – but also set his best time after the peak condition of his soft rubber had passed. After missing the Turn 1 apex, the home hero swiftly abandoned his initial effort on that compound, then produced two fliers on laps two and five of a six-lap stint – the latter resulting in his 0.120s gap to Sainz.
Verstappen finished fourth in FP1 – also 0.120s adrift with an identical best time with his team-mate – after he spun off on his first softs flier, unable to catch a rear wheel slide after hitting the inside Turn 10 kerbs. Despite stamping on the brakes to avoid hitting the wall as he spun off into the runoff, he didn’t pit to change those tyres and then used them to set a personal best two laps later.
Hamilton trailed in fifth for Mercedes – 0.142s slower than Sainz with his best effort on the softs, but with a bizarre moment late-on. The Briton, seemingly at the start of a long run he then abandoned, had just entered the track’s sector three stadium section running the softs when he slowed and toured slowly ahead of Pierre Gasly and Daniel Ricciardo, before jinking left out of the McLaren’s way and then pitting.
In FP2, Russell initially headed out to complete a long run on the 2022 mediums – reflecting typical work in this session on a ‘normal’ weekend, albeit inverted as his race-data-gathering exercise was followed by his fliers on the softs.
After Russell led the way on ultimate pace on Friday, Ferrari should be encouraged by the outcomes of the long-run averages from FP1 – where it and Red Bull completed identical programmes after the qualifying simulations – even if Leclerc’s crash was unfortunate in FP2
That work on the red-walled rubber put Russell top with a 1m19.970s and he was followed by fellow FP1 absentees Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon, 0.828s and 1.207s back respectively, for AlphaTauri and Alpine. Both of their cars had had to be repaired after a pressure loss and engine issue occurred aboard them when Liam Lawson and Jack Doohan were at the respective wheels in FP1.
The FP2 tyre test run plan went along the same lines as it had a week ago at Austin – two stints of five laps with the cars running 20kg of fuel and then longer stints running 100kg fuel. Unlike in America, the longer stints were extended, although confusingly by different lengths across the field as they pitted and then headed back out in the aftermath of Leclerc’s crash.
Again, no set-up changes were permitted and DRS could not be used – after some confusion in the Austin test that led to the device’s usage initially being allowed and then stopped by the FIA. The delay for Leclerc’s stoppage at least meant there were plenty of cars running on track to the end, as they had not been at Austin once the test programme there was completed, to ensure they maximised Pirelli’s programme.
Hamilton topped the times for those running the prototypes, which are at the softer end of Pirelli’s planned 2023 range after the harder examples were tested in the USA. This test replaced the missed running in Japan due to the wet weather at Suzuka earlier this month.
Why Mercedes’ extra FP2 2022 tyre running will be valuable
Although the tyre test dominated FP2, while five squads got extra time to run the 2022 compounds, all making interpreting the times even more fraught than usual – and with all the usual fuel load and engine mode caveats applying – we can assess how things stack up so far for the frontrunners looking towards Sunday’s race.
After Russell led the way on ultimate pace on Friday, Ferrari should be encouraged by the outcomes of the long-run averages from FP1 – where it and Red Bull completed identical programmes after the qualifying simulations – even if Leclerc’s crash was unfortunate in FP2.
Ferrari led the way by 0.213s on the softs (from a longer stint length of seven laps for Leclerc against five for Perez) in the late-FP1 long-running. And it was just 0.081s slower in comparison over the twin six-lap stints Sainz and Verstappen completed in that session.
Russell’s average for his early FP2 long-run on the mediums comes in at 1m22.826s over a seven-lap stint, which compares to Ferrari’s FP1 best on the softs of 1m24.151s and Red Bull edging the hards average at 1m24.698s.
Here, Mercedes has a key advantage over Red Bull and Ferrari for the rest of the Mexico this weekend – because it was able to run closer to the conditions likely to occur on Sunday, where temperatures are forecast to be down by 2°C compared to the 26°C peak reached on Friday.
The data Russell logged with his medium tyre run early in FP2 came in two hours past the race’s 2pm start time, getting closer to those temperatures on what is set to be a key race tyre on a track where traction and braking demands are high on the low-grip surface.
Although Red Bull and Ferrari were able to get long runs in late in FP1, so was Mercedes using Nyck de Vries – although his average on the hards came in 0.794s slower than Verstappen’s best, reflecting his unfamiliarity with the W13 compared to Hamilton and Russell.
Red Bull and Ferrari will have to be busy in FP3 gathering additional race-run data, but this extra running for Mercedes in particular will be useful at a track where it has a good chance of getting amongst Red Bull and Ferrari in the victory hunt due to the thin, high-altitude Mexico City air negating the extra drag penalty the W13 usually carries.
Ferrari started things strongly here in Mexico City and Red Bull remains the hot favourite given the RB18 has ended the season as the class package
It’s also worth remembering here that having the extra time on the 2022 tyres helped Ferrari in an unexpected way at Austin as it was able to fall back on Leclerc’s medium tyre long run after he missed a planned equivalent in FP3 due to the team discovering a small tyre cut just as he was about to head out.
That said, Ferrari started things strongly here in Mexico City and Red Bull remains the hot favourite given the RB18 has ended the season as the class package, with a dominant world champion in one car and a home driver keen to please his fans packing the grandstands in the other.
