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# What happened in Mexican GP FP1 with 10 rookies
- URL: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/what-happened-f1-2026-mexican-gp-first-practice/
- Published: 2026-10-30T19:49:08.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-30T20:58:32.000Z
- Description: Charles Leclerc led F1 drivers' championship leader Kimi Antonelli in first practice for the 2026 Mexico GP as 10 rookie drivers took to the track
- Author: Samarth Kanal
- Tags: Formula 1, #mexican-grand-prix, #charles-leclerc, #ferrari, #primary_homepage_feature

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc led Mercedes’ Formula 1 drivers’ championship leader Kimi Antonelli in first practice for the 2026 Mexico Grand Prix as 10 rookie drivers took to the track.

Leclerc set the benchmark of 1m18.128s to go 0.659 seconds faster than Antonelli, whose stand-in team-mate Fred Vesti was just 0.074s slower in third.

Mercedes’ Vesti was the fastest rookie in FP1, with every team bar Ferrari fielding a substitute for FP1.

Leclerc’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton was 0.005s off Vesti in fourth, the top four having set their fastest times on softs.

Red Bull stand-in Ayumu Iwasa meanwhile went fifth, 0.985s off the pace, on mediums.

Pierre Gasly took sixth for Alpine, just over a second away, while his rookie team-mate Gabriele Mini was 14th.

Fernando Alonso was 1.229s off the pace in seventh for Aston Martin on mediums. Alonso’s team-mate Jak Crawford, 19th, brought out the VSC late on as his Aston Martin stopped off track with a suspected ERS issue.

Oscar Piastri went eighth on softs while Leonardo Fornaroli, driving in place of Lando Norris in FP1, was 17th in the second McLaren.

Ollie Bearman went ninth for Haas, his session ending in the pits with smoke coming out of the car. Team-mate Ryo Hirakawa was 15th.

Arvid Lindblad rounded out the top 10, 1.350s off in his Racing Bulls on softs. The other car, driven in FP1 by Nikola Tsolov, was a tenth further back in 12th place. Tsolov suffered from a numb leg late in the session as his seat was compressing it - but the Formula 2 title contender was able to return to the pits and later completed another run.

Between the Racing Bulls was Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar, who encountered power unit issues early on and only ran on hard tyres in FP1.

> The cooling fan definitely shouldn't be there! 🧐 Freddie Slater's running in FP1 was unfortunately cut short due to this issue #F1 #MexicoGP https://t.co/wdXfABPlFN
> 
> — Formula 1 (@F1) [October 30, 2026](https://x.com/F1/status/2116270415874023739?ref%5Fsrc=twsrc%5Etfw&ref=the-race.com)

Nico Hulkenberg was 13th for Audi while his stand-in team-mate Freddie Slater (in 21st) lost a chunk of running as a piece of cooling equipment kept him confined to the pits for much of his FP1 debut.

Slater’s late appearance and move to 21st left Cadillac’s Colton Herta last. Herta struggled to put a fast lap together but notched up 30 laps, with Cadillac claiming that Herta has now reached 40 superlicence points.

Luke Browning was 20th for Williams, four places behind regular driver Carlos Sainz’s 16th.