Mercedes posted the fastest laps in first practice ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix, a race that is expected to favor Red Bull and season championship leader Max Verstappen.
Valtteri Bottas was 0.076 seconds quicker than teammate Lewis Hamilton, who trails Verstappen by 12 points in the championship with five races left.
Verstappen and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez were third and fourth.
“It was a solid session for us,” Red Bull boss Christian Horner told Sky Sports. “Both drivers are starting to find a setup that they’re liking, the short runs and long runs look reasonable.
“I think Mercedes have still got a bit in the pocket so I don’t think we’ve seen their full potential, but focusing on ourselves it was a reasonable day.” s.
Perez had a rough start in dusty conditions in front of his home crowd at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
He spun into the wall just a few minutes after the session began and damaged his rear wing. The crash forced Perez into his garage for almost half of the 60-minute session for repairs.
Formula One returned to Mexico City this season after canceling the race in 2020 because of the pandemic. Verstappen won the race in 2017 and 2018. Hamilton won in 2019 and also clinched his 2017 and 2018 championships at the track.
Meanwhile, Australian Daniel Ricciardo qualified 15th in FP2 after less than impressive session.
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“We had an issue, so came in, and let’s say there [were] a few checks to go through, so we couldn’t get back out – or let’s say it wasn’t worth the risk going back out, so I got a few laps in on the hard and then that was it,” he said.
“We have to get it all together tomorrow, but we will obviously have the morning session to get on top of it.
“It’s definitely not written off yet. I mean it obviously gives us a bit more work to do but it’s definitely not out of reach. We’ve got some pace to find but I think [team mate] Lando [Norris]’s first run looked a little bit better this afternoon so we’ll try and dissect that and see what we can learn.”
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