Mexico City GP:

A Disrupted Friday for the Team

Formula One enjoyed an unusual Friday on its return to the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, with three red flags, a host of young drivers and an extended second session for Pirelli tyre testing.

The team's FP2 started with a moment of shock when George went off at Turn 9 and hit the barrier. He was taken to the medical centre for a precautionary check but returned to the team shortly afterwards. He is okay and the team is already working on repairing his car.

This morning, our Junior Driver Kimi Antonelli completed his second FP1 outing of the season, driving Lewis' W15 and finishing P12 after 19 laps. Meanwhile, George set the fastest time of the session. Lewis completed the mandatory Pirelli tyre test programme in FP2, finishing his only session of the day in P7.

The team will now analyse the data overnight before continuing with FP3 on Saturday at 11:30 local time (18:30 BST). Qualifying, which will determine the grid positions for Sunday's Grand Prix, will take place in the afternoon from 15:00 local time (22:00 BST).

George Russell

It was a big hit, and I felt a bit winded initially. I’m OK but unfortunately the car wasn’t. I am not sure what happened. I turned into the corner, trying to cut the line similarly to how I did in FP1. I’m not sure whether it was the kerb or the car bottoming out but it bounced a little and, before I had a chance to catch it, I was already in the wall.

There is a lot of work on for the team in the garage overnight now, unfortunately. It does feel like it is one thing after another at the moment. It is frustrating as we were strong in FP1 and topped the times. We lost out on a lot of laps in FP2 so FP3 will be important for us to get the car in a good place ahead of Qualifying and Sunday’s race.

Lewis Hamilton

It was great to see Kimi do a really solid job for the team in FP1. It’s been enjoyable working with and supporting him ahead of the session and the programme he carried out set us up well for the afternoon. It’s not always easy to get straight up to speed having missed that opening practice but I got a good feeling from the car in FP2.

With the tyre test, we couldn’t change anything on the car during the session. The red flag following George’s crash almost meant we lost a decent chunk of running time. Nevertheless, I feel like we got a lot of good information to work through and utilise this evening as we look to make improvements for the rest of the weekend.

Kimi Antonelli

I wanted to deliver a clean FP1 session for the team today and I was pleased that I was able to do that. It was my first time driving the circuit here, so I stayed very much within the limit and just built my confidence lap-by-lap. Overall, it was a decent hour, and, despite the red flags, we gathered lots of data that will hopefully help the team over the rest of the weekend.

I was also able to build my understanding of the W15 too. We ran both the Hard and Soft compound and it was good to get a mixture of consecutive running and single lap work completed. Whilst there aren’t any more FP1 sessions for me to take part in this year, I’m looking forward to continuing my programme with previous cars as we build towards 2025.

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director

FP1 ran smoothly with Kimi doing a solid job as he stepped in for his second rookie session, this time alongside George. We had a busy programme to get through and, despite the interruption of two red flags, were able to complete the majority of it. George meanwhile hit the ground running and felt particularly comfortable on the Soft tyre, topping the times at the end of the hour. With the mandated Pirelli tyre test for FP2, we knew how important getting good FP1 running would be.

That became even more true as George was unfortunate to lose the car at turn eight early in the extended FP2 session. It was a hefty shunt; fortunately, he was OK but the car fared less well. It has given us a decent amount of work to do to get the car ready for FP3 and we are already working through that. Lewis enjoyed a happier session and was comfortable with the car, although a bit frustrated that the tyre test meant he had no opportunity to work on the setup.

2024 Mexico City GP FP1 Result

2024 Mexico City GP FP2 Result