Norris Claims Top Spot in Final Mexico City GP Practice

Lando Norris led the timesheets during the final hour of practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix, finishing just one thousandth of a second ahead of Kimi Antonelli.

Lando Norris narrowly edged out Kimi Antonelli in FP3 during the final practice session before qualifying in Mexico City. Antonelli finished second, while Charles Leclerc, Oscar Piastri, and Max Verstappen completed the top five.

FP3 as it happened

In a surprise mid-weekend driver swap, Ryō Hirakawa drove Esteban Ocon’s Haas, set to replace the Frenchman for the remainder of the Mexico City GP weekend. The reason for this decision remained unclear but followed speculation of tension within the team after Haas declined to renew Ocon’s contract for 2027 in favor of Rafael Camara. Hirakawa had already participated in FP1 as part of the rookie practice session, giving him some track experience in preparation for qualifying later that day.

Hirakawa was the first on track, running practice procedures while the track was quiet. He was joined by Gabriel Bortoleto, who reported an engine issue before returning to the pitlane with smoke emerging from the rear of his Audi.

Fernando Alonso ran wide at Turn 2 due to an engine problem, triggering a brief yellow flag. There was a mix of soft and medium tires being used in the first quarter of the session, with Pierre Gasly currently fastest with a 1:19.304 before Antonelli set a 1:18.754.

Several other drivers appeared to be struggling to keep their cars on the track, notably Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris, both of whom explored the run-off areas. Despite his excursion on the previous lap, Leclerc went on to beat Antonelli’s time by three hundredths of a second. Leclerc could pose a significant challenge to Antonelli if the Mercedes driver aims for pole position and a victory on the weekend he is set to become champion, as Ferrari appears to be the car to beat in Mexico.

Ferrari appear competitive in Mexico City

30 minutes down, 30 minutes remaining

At the halfway point of FP3, it was the other Ferrari of Lewis Hamilton with the fastest time of a 1:18.162. Sergio Perez had not yet set a time, and an update from Cadillac strongly suggested the Mexican driver would not return to the track as the team needed to change his power unit. Gabriel Bortoleto faced a similar situation; after his technical issue at the start of the session, Audi elected to change his power unit and prepare the car for later use.

The top teams had not yet begun their soft tire runs to generate more representative times for qualifying. George Russell was among the first to go out for final flying laps. The British driver had struggled to make much of an impression so far in the session, only beating the Ferrari’s medium tire lap by a few hundredths of a second and complaining of a lack of grip in his rears.

Mclaren seemed to be performing well, with both Norris and Piastri within two tenths of Kimi Antonelli. Norris had already shown a glimpse of pace in FP2 where he finished second fastest, but Piastri had lagged behind in tenth place. Verstappen, rounding out the top 5 with two minutes remaining, was on the radio complaining that his brakes were not working.

Norris pulled a 1:17.600 out of the bag on his final run, 0.001 seconds faster than his championship successor-to-be, taking the top spot for the session.