Lando Norris tops final practice by 0.001s from Kimi Antonelli
Reigning world champion Lando Norris has topped third and final practice at Formula 1’s Mexico Grand Prix, beating championship leader Kimi Antonelli in a tight session at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Norris dipped just 0.001s under Antonelli‘s initial benchmark as all four top teams looked in the mix on the tricky high-altitude circuit, with several midfield running into power unit trouble.
A quiet opening phase saw Ryo Hirakawa get a lot of airtime in the Haas. Having covered FP1, the Toyota-backed driver returned to the Haas as a substitute for Esteban Ocon for the remainder of the Mexico weekend.
Ocon was benched by the squad for reasons which are yet to be fully clarified, with the Frenchman having a heated exchange with his race engineer in FP2.
While 32-year-old debutant Hirakawa was building up confidence around the difficult and slippery, high-altitude Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, champion-elect Antonelli and Charles Leclerc traded blows during the opening stages of the session as all frontrunners were running medium tyres.
Having missed valuable track time in FP2 with engine trouble, Lewis Hamilton came to the fore just before the halfway mark with a 1m18.268s, picking up where Ferrari left off as the squad was satisfied with the initial set-up direction on Friday.
Leclerc took another tenth out of his team-mate’s lap time, before Hamilton took top with a 1m18.162s lap to lead the medium-tyre runs that dominated the first half of practice, followed by Leclerc and Antonelli as both Red Bull and McLaren looked a clear step behind.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: James Sutton / LAT Images via Getty Images
Bolting on softs, reigning world champion Norris briefly claimed top with a 1m17.873s ahead of team-mate Oscar Piastri and George Russell, who lamented a lack of grip through the tricky Turn 12 right-hander entering the Foro Sol stadium.
As Leclerc got out of shape through the Esses and backed out, Antonelli jumped to the top of the timesheets with a 1m17.601s lap, but not before voicing his frustration at Max Verstappen‘s impeding in Turn 1.
Antonelli then went purple in sector one on his next flyer but ultimately didn’t improve. That opened the door for Norris to pip him by just 0.001s to head into qualifying with the fastest time of the weekend.
Leclerc found a late improvement with a rapid first sector but stayed in third, 0.117s behind, closely followed by Piastri. Verstappen was fifth, 0.351s behind as he struggled with his brakes, setting up another close qualifying session between 2026’s four top teams.
An untidy third sector left Hamilton over four tenths adrift in sixth, followed by Russell and Hadjar, who called his Red Bull “the worst car I’ve driven this weekend, it’s terrible”.
Racing Bulls again looked well poised to win the best of the rest battle, with Liam Lawson pipping rookie team-mate Arvid Lindblad to ninth as they rounded out the top 10.
Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls
Photo by: Manuel Eletto / Getty Images
Hirakawa ended his session in 19th, just ahead of Cadillac driver Valtteri Bottas. Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto didn’t manage to set a lap time after encountering a power unit issue on his out-lap, with a puff of smoke emanating from an ill-sounding engine.
Home hero Sergio Perez also failed to set a lap, with Cadillac announcing it would have to perform a “precautionary engine change” ahead of qualifying.
F1 Mexico GP – FP3 results
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Team
