Reigning world champion Lando Norris won the third and final practice session for the Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix, beating championship leader Kimi Antonelli in a close session at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Norris fell just 0.001 seconds below Antonelli’s early benchmark as the top four teams were in the mix on the tricky high-altitude circuit, with several midfielders experiencing powertrain issues.
A calm opening phase saw Ryo Hirakawa spend a lot of air time in the Haas. After covering FP1, the Toyota-backed driver returned to Haas to replace Esteban Ocon for the remainder of the weekend in Mexico.
Ocon was benched by the team for reasons that have yet to be fully clarified, with the Frenchman having a heated exchange with his race engineer during FP2.
As 32-year-old debutant Hirakawa gained confidence around the difficult and slippery, high-altitude Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, champion-elect Antonelli and Charles Leclerc traded blows in the early stages of the session as all the favorites ran on medium tires.
After missing valuable track time in FP2 due to engine problems, Lewis Hamilton won just before halfway with a time of 1:18.268, picking up where Ferrari left off as the team was happy with the initial direction of the set-up on Friday.
Leclerc took a further tenth off his teammate’s lap time, before Hamilton took the lead with a 1m18.162 lap to lead the medium tire races which dominated the first half of practice, followed by Leclerc and Antonelli as Red Bull and McLaren looked clearly behind.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
Photo by: James Sutton / LAT Images via Getty Images
Relying on the softs, reigning world champion Norris briefly took the lead with a time of 1’17”873 ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri and George Russell, who lamented a lack of grip on the tricky right-hander of Turn 12 entering the Foro Sol stadium.
As Leclerc spun out in the Esses and fell back, Antonelli jumped to the top of the timesheet with a 1m17.601 lap, but not before expressing his frustration at Max Verstappen’s encumbrance in Turn 1.
Antonelli then switched to purple in the first sector of his next flight, but ultimately did not improve. This allowed Norris to beat him by just 0.001 seconds to qualify with the fastest time of the weekend.
Leclerc found late improvement with a fast first sector but remained third, 0.117 seconds behind, closely followed by Piastri. Verstappen was fifth, 0.351 seconds behind as he struggled with his brakes, setting up another tight qualifying session between the top four teams of 2026.
A messy third sector left Hamilton more than four tenths behind sixth, followed by Russell and Hadjar, who called his Red Bull “the worst car I’ve driven this weekend, it’s terrible”.
The Racing Bulls once again looked well placed to win the best of the rest battle, with Liam Lawson edging his rookie teammate Arvid Lindblad into ninth place as they rounded out the top 10.
Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls
Photo by: Manuel Eletto / Getty Images
Hirakawa finished his session 19th, just ahead of Cadillac driver Valtteri Bottas. Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto failed to set a lap time after experiencing a powertrain problem on his exit lap, with a puff of smoke emanating from a bad-sounding engine.
Local hero Sergio Pérez also failed to complete a lap, with Cadillac announcing it would have to carry out a “precautionary engine change” before qualifying.
Mexican F1 GP – FP3 Results
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