Motorsport · Formula One · Mexico City Grand Prix · Friday Report
Leclerc Leads a Tight Formula One Friday in Mexico City
Charles Leclerc set the pace in both Friday practice sessions at the Mexico City Grand Prix, edging Lando Norris by 0.103 seconds in FP2. George Russell and Kimi Antonelli kept Mercedes close, while Lewis Hamilton’s afternoon ended early with a power-unit problem. Antonelli still has the drivers’ title within reach, with qualifying and the race ahead.
ViPeople Editorial DeskPublished 11 min read
Photograph: Formula 1
Audio articleListen to this storySerena (Enhanced) · English UK
Kimi Antonelli arrives in Mexico City with the championship arithmetic close enough to follow from the grandstands. His victory in Austin raised his total to 365 points, 123 clear of George Russell and 124 ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Two more points would guarantee his first drivers’ title. The Mexico City Grand Prix opens the final stretch of a season that has been led by the Mercedes rookie since Round 3.
Charles Leclerc races through the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez during the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix.Photograph: Formula 1
The threshold makes the weekend unusually clear. A ninth-place finish gives Antonelli the two points he needs. If he scores nothing, he can still become champion if neither Russell nor Hamilton wins. Russell and Hamilton remain mathematically alive, though Formula 1’s own permutations show that they need a remarkable finish to the season and a complete run of zeroes from Antonelli.
Two points stand between a long season and a new champion
A championship can turn on a small number. Two points could arrive through a single pass, a clean finish, or a result that moves a driver into the lower reaches of the top ten. For Antonelli, the task is to race at the speed that has carried him to nine wins while keeping the arithmetic in view. The next decision still has to be made at racing speed, with tyres, traffic and changing grip in front of him.
Austin provided the latest evidence of his control. Antonelli won his ninth Grand Prix of the year, with Charles Leclerc second and Max Verstappen third. Russell finished eighth and Hamilton fourth. Those positions gave the leader a larger cushion and sent the championship towards the possibility of being decided in Mexico City.
The result belongs to a wider story of adaptation. Antonelli is a young driver building a first full season around different circuits, pressures and team expectations. The points table measures the outcome. Each weekend asks for a fresh way to find speed, then keep it through qualifying and the race. Mexico makes the question visible: can the driver at the front secure the title while still working through a full Grand Prix weekend?
Kimi Antonelli arrives in Mexico after winning in Austin and moving within reach of the drivers’ championship.Photograph: Formula 1
A high-altitude circuit changes the shape of the weekend
The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez sits more than two kilometres above sea level. Its 4.304-kilometre lap takes in 71 laps on Sunday, a race distance of 305.354 kilometres. Formula 1 describes the setting as a breathless one, and the circuit has a visual signature that is difficult to confuse with any other venue.
The track follows much of the original circuit layout before winding through the old Foro Sol baseball stadium. The stadium section draws the cars into a close, enclosed sequence surrounded by spectators. It gives a long race a moment where the grandstands feel near to the drivers, then releases them back onto the wider circuit.
The event has a compact weekend schedule. Practice begins on Friday, qualifying takes place on Saturday and the Grand Prix starts at 14:00 local time on Sunday. For teams, the altitude is part of the engineering challenge. For a driver, it forms the environment around every braking point, turn-in and exit, with a different combination of rhythm from the street circuits that came earlier in the year.
The Mexico City circuit bends through the Foro Sol stadium, one of the calendar’s most distinctive race settings.Photograph: Formula 1
Pérez brings a second story to his home race
Sergio Pérez is due to make his 300th Grand Prix start in Mexico City. The milestone arrives at the place where his connection to Formula One has always felt personal. He will race for Cadillac, the new American team whose first season has brought another local focus into a weekend that already belongs to its home crowd.
Pérez’s career reaches from his early years with Sauber and Force India through race wins, podiums and a spell at Red Bull. The Mexico City organisers marked his return with a public show run on Paseo de la Reforma in September. The Grand Prix gives that milestone a different scale, with a full weekend in the city and a race that will add a new line to his career record.
Sergio Pérez and Cadillac bring a home crowd into the weekend’s wider championship story.Photograph: Formula 1
The championship and the homecoming will share the same circuit, yet they arrive with different measures of success. Antonelli needs a result that makes the season official. Pérez has a milestone and a home crowd around him. Cadillac will be working through the demands of a new team season. The crowd can hold all three stories at once.
Mexico can close one contest and sharpen another
The constructors’ race remains open even if the drivers’ title is settled. Mercedes has the opportunity to move towards a team championship, with Ferrari still its nearest challenge. That gives the team two reasons to keep both cars in the fight and a reminder that a drivers’ title does not finish the work around the garage.
For Antonelli, the strongest route is still the one he has taken through the season: arrive prepared, understand the circuit, qualify well and turn a fast car into a complete Sunday. Two points are the formal requirement. The race itself will ask for much more attention than a number can show.
Mexico City is ready to host the first possible title celebration of the final five rounds. Antonelli has made the margin. The circuit now gives him a test at altitude, Pérez brings his milestone home, and the championship waits to see whether its next answer arrives this weekend.
Leclerc gives Ferrari the first clean reference
Charles Leclerc races through the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez during the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix.Photograph: Formula 1
The most useful line from Friday belongs to Leclerc. His 1:17.827 put Ferrari at the front of FP2, after he had also topped the opening session. Norris finished 0.103 seconds behind, with Russell only three thousandths further back. Antonelli was fourth at 0.217 seconds, and Max Verstappen completed the top five at 0.311. Five cars from four teams were separated by less than a third of a second.
That closeness gives the timing sheet its proper scale. Friday practice is a working day, shaped by fuel loads, tyre choices and different programmes. It still tells us which drivers found a clean lap and which teams have a useful starting point. Ferrari had the most consistent headline across both sessions. Mercedes had two cars close to the benchmark, and McLaren placed Norris among the quickest again.
The session was unsettled in places. Verstappen and Liam Lawson made contact while running side by side at Turn 12, scattering debris and bringing out a short red flag. Lewis Hamilton later stopped with a power-unit problem after reporting a loss of power. He managed 13 laps, leaving Ferrari with less data from its second car than the team would have wanted.
Rookie participation had already altered the rhythm of FP1, with ten drivers giving up their seats for the opening hour. That left several race drivers catching up in the afternoon. The teams then moved from short runs towards longer stints, trying different tyre compounds on a circuit where grip and balance can shift through the day.
Antonelli keeps the championship arithmetic in view
The title remains the larger story around Antonelli. His 123-point advantage over Russell means two points at the Mexican Grand Prix would secure the championship. Practice does not settle that calculation, and Friday’s close order gives the Mercedes driver a competitive weekend to manage as well as a title opportunity.
The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez asks teams to balance its long straights with the tighter stadium section and the demands of altitude. The circuit sits more than two kilometres above sea level. That changes the conditions in which the power unit, brakes and cooling systems have to work. A quick practice lap is useful, while repeatable pace and a car that behaves in traffic matter more over Sunday’s 71 laps.
Pérez’s return as a Cadillac driver gives the home crowd another story to follow. Friday placed him eighteenth, 1.579 seconds from Leclerc, in a session where the order was still being shaped by programmes and track conditions. His 300th Grand Prix start remains the weekend milestone, and the home support will follow every step from qualifying onwards.
For Saturday, the immediate questions are straightforward. Can Leclerc keep Ferrari at the front when qualifying begins? Can Norris and Russell find the few tenths that separate the top five? How much of Friday’s order survives the next change in track temperature and grip? FP3 begins at 11:30 local time, with qualifying scheduled for 15:00. The Grand Prix starts at 14:00 on Sunday.
Friday belongs to Leclerc on the timesheets. The title is still Antonelli’s to finish, and the race remains open to the four teams that packed the top five into a narrow margin. Mexico has given the weekend a proper contest before a wheel has turned in qualifying.
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