Lando Norris led a British top three after going nearly three and a half tenths ahead of Lewis Hamilton in third practice for the Mexico City Grand Prix. The McLaren driver set a 16.663 in the final ten minutes, going fastest while Hamilton was over a tenth and a half faster than former teammate George Russell.
Having expressed concern about McLaren’s single-lap pace around the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Friday, team and driver certainly found something special come the end-of-season soft-tyre runs in the final hour of practice running.
Although the gap to Norris was big, Mercedes took third with George Russell, while Charles Leclerc delivered improvement to fourth with his final attempt in the other Ferrari.
The Mercedes driver managed to split the two Ferraris after going over half a tenth ahead of Charles Leclerc. The Ferrari driver was around a quarter of a tenth off his teammate and ahead of Oscar Piastri’s McLaren by three hundredths, ahead of what is expected to be one of the closest qualifying sessions of the year.
Most of the fastest times came in the final quarter of the session, but no one was able to challenge Norris for top spot. Hamilton looked on course to challenge while Max Verstappen was on the slower mediums, the Ferrari driver locked up on his soft run before going wide.
Verstappen was sixth as he put his Red Bull a hundredth behind the Australian. Kimi Antonelli put his Mercedes seventh a further hundredth behind the four-time champion, as he went just under a tenth and a half ahead of Isack Hadjar. The Red Bull driver, however, did a lot of runs on mediums and was complaining about a lack of grip.
Hadjar’s rival for the second Red Bull seat, Yuki Tsunoda. Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto once again showed Sauber had pace, the Brazilian was a tenth behind Tsunoda, completing the top ten.
The cut off time for the top ten was a 17.526, which was nearly nine-tenths behind Norris’ fastest lap. Bortoleto was a quarter of a tenth faster than Liam Lawson who himself was almost a quarter of a tenth ahead of Esteban Ocon, with the Aston Martin of Lance Stroll six and a half hundredths behind.
Stroll was the same margin ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, with Carlos Sainz nearly two tenths ahead of Williams teammate Alex Albon, Ollie Bearman was three and a half tenths further behind. Pierre Gasly was eighteenth after going over a tenth and a half ahead of Alpine teammate Franco Colapinto.
Fernando Alonso completed the field; his running was limited after Aston Martin “discovered a small issue with the front right” of the Spaniard’s car, which also left him without a soft run.
