Russell leads first Mexico tests, Albon crashes after collision with Berman

The opening free practice of the Mexico City GP, the 20th Formula 1 race of the year, was eventful: it was stopped twice with red flags: once in the 5th minute for carbon fiber detached from a car and left on the center straight, and in the 22nd minute due to collision of Alex Albon and Oliver Berman with Williams FW 46 and Ferrari SF-24 respectively.

Albon was on a fast lap and was closing in on Berman’s Ferrari, which was moving at a slower pace, at high speed. He caught up to him at Turn 9, and with Berman on the racing line on the exit Albon was forced to lift off the gas.

As a result, the Williams’ tail jerked, Albon lost control, and after slamming his rear right wheel hard into the Ferrari’s front left, he then did a series of four-a-ques before crashing several times into the barriers. . Neither driver was injured.

After the 14-minute stoppage, the rest of the drivers returned with 24 minutes left on the clock. Until then, Saint had been leading the times on the hard tyre, and the Spaniard remained on top when the soft (C5) laps started.

Russell, however, responded by reducing the first time by 6 tenths (under 1:17”), while with his next effort Saint halved the gap. Third year was scored by RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, who was one and a half tenths ahead of Max Verstappen.

The Dutchman, however, had other concerns beyond his relatively slow time: he radioed problems with the Red Bull RB20’s power unit, and had to make a late pit stop 5 minutes before the end of testing.

At the moment there are no details on these, but if the Dutchman needs to change a part he will receive a 5 place penalty at the start because he has already reached the limit of his parts for this year.

Oscar Piastri with McLaren was not much more satisfied with these tests. He said the MCL38 gave him a “pretty awful” feel on the soft rubber – and it’s unknown if that was due to the new floor his team brought to Mexico. So the Australian soon got rid of the soft rubber and devoted himself to collecting data with the hard one.

A total of 5 rookies took part in these tests, replacing the established drivers. Their fastest was Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli in 12th place (1.2” off the top), 95mm ahead of McLaren’s Peito O’Ward.

Also in the last places were Aston Martin’s Felipe Drugovic (who said he didn’t push anywhere near the limit), Sauber’s Roberg Schwarzman and Ferrari Academy’s Oliver Berman.