Russell tops FP1 as Albon and Bearman crash

George Russell went quickest in a twice red-flagged opening apply session on the Mexican Grand Prix, as Alex Albon and Oliver Bearman collided at Flip 9.

Russell set a 1m17.998s on the soft-tyre runs to go three tenths sooner than Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in a stop-start session, with the primary interruption coming 5 minutes in to clear a sliver of particles sat forward of Flip 1.

Each Albon and Bearman had been concerned within the second; the Williams driver was on a push lap and caught a slowing Bearman at Flip 9 and lifted off, which induced his automotive to snap – he clipped the Ferrari reserve driver and went straight on into the wall.

The second purple flag produced a 14-minute delay, and apply resumed with 24 minutes left on the clock.

Sainz had led the way in which after the opening runs on the onerous tyre forward of the second pause after which continued to headline the session on the gentle tyre as he set a 1m18.573s lap to kick off the primary efficiency runs of the weekend.

Russell discovered nearly six tenths over the Spaniard to go sooner, breaking into the 1m17s within the course of, though Sainz obtained nearer with a follow-up 1m18.315s time to shut the hole.

RB’s Yuki Tsunoda was third quickest in a jumbled order, 0.7 seconds off the tempo, whereas Max Verstappen was an extra tenth-and-a-half behind.

The Dutchman reported over the radio that he was struggling with an influence unit situation, and slowly made his means again to the pits with over 5 minutes remaining and took no additional half within the session.

Nico Hulkenberg was fifth quickest over Oscar Piastri, who contended that his McLaren felt ‘fairly horrible’ throughout his soft-tyre runs and subsequently put collectively an extended hard-tyre stint to assemble additional information.

Esteban Ocon was seventh, albeit a second off the tempo, forward of the closely-matched Valtteri Bottas, Liam Lawson, and Sergio Perez.

Future Mercedes driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli loved an extended FP1 session versus his Monza outing, taking Lewis Hamilton’s automotive to twelfth within the order – a tenth behind Franco Colapinto.

Pato O’Ward drove Lando Norris’ automotive in his dwelling FP1 session and was thirteenth quickest, whereas fellow stand-ins Felipe Drugovich (Aston Martin), Robert Shwartzman (Sauber) and Bearman (Ferrari) propped up the order.