Red Bull dominated the opening practice session for the Mexico Grand Prix, with Max Verstappen topping the timesheet by half a second from team-mate Daniel Ricciardo.
The Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez’s high altitude – and heightened emphasis on mechanical grip – has proven to favour Red Bull in the past, with Verstappen leading every lap en route to victory in 2017.
Continuing last season’s form, Verstappen posted a 1m16.656s time on the second lap of a hypersoft run to edge to 0.483s clear of Ricciardo who ended the session in second despite having led at the halfway mark in FP1.
Lewis Hamilton, who enters this weekend needing just five points to secure a fifth world drivers’ title, had briefly occupied top spot early on.
Mercedes, however, opted to run the ultrasoft tyre in the second half of the session and with the track conditions improving quickly as the dust cleared, Hamilton slipped to an eventual fifth place. Team-mate Valtteri Bottas ended the morning in sixth.
The Mercedes duo were pipped to third and fourth by the Renaults. Carlos Sainz Jr was 0.102s faster than team-mate Nico Hulkenberg, as Renault achieved it’s best practice result of 2018.
Ferrari carried out an experimental programme in FP1, as Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen completed significant mileage in the first half of the session with the team running back to back tests on it’s aerodynamic upgrades.
Ferrari removed its Sinagpore upgrades from the car at last weekend’s US Grand Prix. Vettel once again ran with the Singapore-spec floor on the car for the first 40-minutes while Raikkonen used the older parts.
On the ultrasoft tyres, Vettel ended the session in seventh place and Raikkonen finished eighth.
Brendon Hartley was with the majority of drivers in complaining of significant tyre graining. However, the Toro Rosso driver still finished in ninth, ahead of Force India reserve Nicholas Latifi who impressed in 10th.
Fellow Friday driver Lando Norris nearly tripped over Latifi in the latter stages of the session. In the sweeping transition between Turns 10 and 11, the McLaren driver locked up and nearly collected the Force India driver.
Norris managed to finish narrowly ahead of his team-mate for the session Stoffel Vandoorne as the McLarens occupied 15th and 16th.
Antonio Giovinazzi – the third of the Friday drivers fielded in FP1 – also posted a faster time than his team-mate, as he ended up 12th and edged Marcus Ericsson by less than two tenths.
Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly did not participate in the session, as the team replaced the power unit on his car. He will receive a 15-place grid penalty as a result.
