First session with problems for Sainz and Alonso in Mexico

Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso They didn’t ride as much as they wanted in the first free practice sessions of the season. F1 Mexican GP 2023. The Madrid native suffered a hydraulic problem with his Ferrari after completing just 7 laps and was unable to complete his planned program. while, Alonso A good portion of the session was lost in the garage due to a setback apparently related to the rear end of his car. After some time in the pits, both were back on the asphalt to ride the final 20 minutes.

If they have to have a retreat this weekend, it’d best be soon Free 1 still not represented and where Fernando He began testing Pirelli’s experimental tires. Sainz He managed to finish FP1 with a short run to start testing the behavior of the hard tyres, while Alonso completed 5 laps on the soft tires and 3 more on the hard tyres.

However, according to Mike Crack, the green team used FP1 to study and better understand the new update released in Austin. Their goal in this session was to focus on understanding these improvements and they were happy with their work.

In this first session in Mexico, Oliver Berman, there are up to 5 young, irregular drivers behind the wheel: Oliver Mearman (Haas), Isack Hadjar (AlphaTauri) Jack Doohan (Alpine), Frederik Vesti (Mercedes) and a Theo Pouchaire He was very unlucky with his Alfa Romeo because he had problems. Pourchaire only completed 4 turns, all of them with mechanical setbacks, and was left unable to showcase his talent with a clean turn.

Verstappen leads

The times of the first free practice sessions are not yet representative. Despite this, the great favourite, Max Verstappen, began to dominate. He did it ahead of Albon’s Williams (2nd) and his teammate ‘Checo’ Pérezwho started at home on a better foot than other weekends. The Mexican was 3rd at 0.297, with Norris 4th at 0.519 and Leclerc’s Ferrari in 5th position. Piastri was 6th to 7 tenths with the rest of McLaren and Sainz, 7th without being able to set a good time because of the hydraulic problem he had.

Hamilton hid

In the first positions, it is expected that Mercedes will be at the start. Russell did not drive because he left his wheel to Vesti, but Hamilton was 11th, still keeping all the potential of a Mercedes from which much is expected this weekend after the good performance of its improvements in Austin. Mercedes is expected to be Red Bull’s great rival, ahead of Ferrari and McLaren. Although it will be necessary to see if FP2 removes more unknowns, as with an Aston Martin that also did not show anything. Stroll was 10th, 0.9 behind Ricciardo (8th) and Ocon (9th), but Alonso was unable to continue after problems forced him to miss time in the pits.