Fernando Alonso signs his best Friday of the year and Leclerc continues to lead
Fan only the first day of free practice and this Saturday This is when the real fire begins with the classification dispute (11:00 p.m.). But Fernando Alonso closed the first day of the Mexican GP as he started it: with positive feelings. He was 12th, close to the Top-10 (just one tenth away) and 0″769. It is Fernando’s shortest distance from the leader of Free Practice 2 of the entire season.overcoming the 1.1 second disadvantage that he had with respect to the best in FP2 of Zandvoort.
Breaking the barrier of second with respect to the leader is not the result of what Fernando Alonso is in F1. Neither for Aston Martin. But coming from where they come from, it can only be a positive push. On this track, where all the engines suffer, the green car is closer. Yes indeed, This Saturday, Fernando and the green team need to confirm what was seen this Friday and raise the bar like the rest of their opponents in qualifying.
The most surprising thing was the pace of the Aston Martin in the third sector of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
The Asturian was not seen with any apparent problems in his car and was able to show a very good pace in that last part of very slow corners, the ones preferred for the AMR26. So much so, that in Free Practice 1, Fernando surprised by setting the second best time in that last sector. And in Free Practice 2, the good feelings continued behind the wheel of a car that, however, returns to the bottom of the table in the first sector due to the lack of power on the straight.
In FP2, with all the starting drivers on the track (there were 10 rookies in Free Practice 1) it was expected that Fernando would not aspire to repeat the seventh place of the first session and dropped to final 12th place, but close to the Top-10 on a positive day compared to most Grand Prix of the year.
In FP2, he did not repeat second place in that third sector, but he was in the middle part of the table, the same as in the second sector, although it was the 17th car in the first, where the lack of top speed of a Honda engine that arrived in Mexico counts. with the main question of seeing how the propeller performed and if it would suffer more than the rest in conditions of such altitude (2,200 meters).
All of this is due to the lower density of air at that altitude compared to sea level, which means that the turbo has to work at a faster rate than usual, also making it difficult to cool the propellant. And so far, Alonso had no problem. He did have a failure in the ERS Crawford, which replaced Stroll in an FP1 with up to 10 young driversand then, the Canadian said he had broken his car in Free Practice 2.
Things look more difficult for Williams. Carlos Sainz was 17th, 1″4 behind the head, 8 tenths from the Top-10 with a car that is not capable of scoring. The Madrid native will have to once again show his great performance in qualifying this year to aspire to a Q2 that seems very complicated.
Leclerc wins the first two sessions
Above, Leclerc dominated the two sessions with Ferrari, although it is something that already happened in Austin a week ago and then the red car was diluted in Q3. At the moment, it seems that the fight could be even this Saturday, unless Kimi Antonelli once again emerges in qualifying to crush as he did in Austin, this time, for the title that he can achieve this weekend.
Lando Norris was second at 0.103 and George Russell was just 3 thousandths behind the current champion, in third place, 0.106 behind the best. Right behind George was his companion, Kimi, 0″217 behind Leclerc. Meanwhile, Verstappen finished 5th at 0″311with a lot to progress, against his teammate Hadjar, 6th at four tenths. Yes indeed, Max made his time with some damage to his car after a collision with Lawson.
For his part, Hamilton suffered engine problems in Free Practice 2, something for which the Englishman had to get out of the car mid-session, without being able to complete his work program.
It is just the first warning of the many reliability failures that could be seen in all the assemblies this weekend in an extremely demanding circuit for the engine and for the cooling of multiple elements.
Lawson earns a fight from Verstappen
The moment of greatest tension involved Max Verstappen and a driver from Red Bull’s ‘B’ team, Liam Lawson. The New Zealander was on the lap and so was Max. He tried to pass him, destroying Liam’s turn, and Lawson held him parallel in several corners until they lightly touched. Liam could be right, but he didn’t think about the consequences. Despite his good year at Racing Bulls, he is risking his seat against Nikola Tsolov, who precisely debuted in FP1 with his RB with a very good score, very close to Lindblad. Upsetting the team leader, Max Verstappen, was not the smartest thing.
