Free Practice 1 – Mexico: Max Verstappen Ahead, Nico Rosberg on Fire

One week after the Austin downpour, the F1 teams once again fitted the rain tires during this first session. However, the conditions were much more manageable than last week. With the high altitude of the Mexican capital, the drivers managed to exceed 350 km/h in top speed!

Apart from the altitude, the drivers had to deal with very limited grip on a track that was only finished very shortly before this weekend, which led Felipe Massa to exclaim over the radio: “The grip is incredible: it’s very, very low and not just in the corners.”

As conditions improved, the drivers took turns topping the timesheet. So, while Kimi Räikkönen was the first to post a lap time of 1:37 after twelve minutes into the session, Valtteri Bottas achieved a 1:30 ten minutes later.

With half an hour remaining, lap times continued to fall, with Valtteri Bottas (1:27.708), Lewis Hamilton (1:27.773), and Nico Rosberg (1:27.226) taking turns at the top of the timesheet. However, as the German sought to further improve his time, he went off track again, this time due to overheating brakes. Although Mercedes initially announced his session was over, the German managed to return to the track towards the end of the session. Lewis Hamilton was also called back to his garage for mechanics to adjust his cooling system.

Serious over-heating in the rear brakes for Nico Rosberg and he is OUT of the remainder of #FP1 #MexicoGP pic.twitter.com/gv0GzAjRSU

— Formula 1 (@F1) 30 Octobre 2015

In the end, it was Max Verstappen who managed to set the fastest lap while Daniil Kvyat and Kimi Räikkönen recorded exactly the same time, finishing 2nd and 3rd.

As for McLaren, the problems do not seem to be improving as Jenson Button spent most of the session in the pits to have his new Honda engine changed. Similarly, Will Stevens was only able to drive during the last quarter-hour due to technical problems with his car.