After a rookie-led FP1 session at the F1 Mexico City GP, the Mercedes duo got back on track for FP2 at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. For Kimi Antonelli, it was one of his best Fridays as he topped the timesheets during both sessions. Ultimately he ended up in P2 and P3, respectively, just 0.174 seconds off Verstappen’s benchmark in second practice. On the other hand, George Russell stepped into the car for the first time in the day during the second practice session, finishing sixth overall, four-tenths behind Verstappen.
Kimi Antonelli on his Friday for Mercedes at F1 Mexico City GP
In what he calls his “best Fridays in a long time,” Antonelli had a stellar performance during both sessions that reinstated the confidence he feels heading into Saturday, especially after a challenging mid-season episode where he struggled to land points and a collision with Williams driver Carlos Sainz at the previous race in Austin.
Reflecting on the overall session, the driver shared, “FP1 was great. FP2 a little worse. We tried some set-up changes that helped in some ways and hurt in others.”
FP2 started with a short engine issue for the Italian driver because the team was experimenting with different set-up changes from the first session; however, this issue was promptly rectified, and Antonelli was able to stay out for the remainder of the session.
“I had a little issue with the engine at the start of the session and halfway through my second lap, so just made the run plan a little bit worse. Everything was a bit more rushed, but we were still able to complete all the laps we needed.”
Despite the minor setback, Antonelli was happy with the data that the team was able to gather that would help them tremendously heading into the rest of the weekend: “A lot of data that we can get from these two sessions and looking forward to tomorrow.”
Looking ahead, the rookie remained cautiously optimistic. “The pace looks good, but tomorrow is going to be another day. The track will evolve, and it’s important we evolve with it. We’ll do our best.”
George Russell reflects on FP2 running at F1 Mexico City GP as Mercedes shown signs of good pace
After reserve driver Fred Vesti took over the Brit’s car for FP1, Russell had a rare opportunity to enjoy the view from the grandstands as a spectator rather than a driver.
He shared, “One thing when you’re an F1 driver is you can’t watch F1. It’s rare you get the chance to go out, and I thought, you know what, I’ll try and do something semi-normal. I didn’t get recognised too much, and enjoyed it.”
Turning into the afternoon sessions, the driver shared the challenges one can face at the twisty and technical track — one of the key challenges being the traffic heading into Q1 and Q2, where slower cars can easily disrupt flying laps. Russell explained that while Mercedes showed competitive pace over a single lap, maintaining that performance over longer runs is just as critical.
“Single lap, I think we look OK. Lando looked very quick on his long run…but as we know, qualifying is so important, so it all lies on that for tomorrow, and see what we can do, but it’ll be close between the top eight cars.” He explained.
The tight margins heading into Saturday will be a cause of major concern as drivers will have to extract the maximum from the car without leaving any room for errors. But the nature of the final sector, tight, low-speed corners, adds another layer of difficulty.
“Especially with this last sector, it’s so slow speed, tight, twisty, so traffic is going to be an issue for everyone,” Russell added. “You can’t take too much margin because the gaps are so close.”
