Russell tops first Mexico City GP practice after Albon crash

George Russell topped first practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix after a big crash for Alex Albon halted proceedings just before the halfway mark.

Albon lost control of his Williams exiting the left-handed Turn 9 and clattered into the slow-moving Ferrari of Oliver Bearman — substituting for Charles Leclerc in the session — on the approach to Turn 10. The collision sent Albon spinning out of control and into the barriers on the outside of the track, while Bearman came to a stop with damage to his front-left wheel.

“Idiot,” Albon radioed before getting out of his stricken chassis and returning to the paddock in the medical car.

Bearman also walked away from the crash unscathed.

With the session resumed and the field switching to soft tires, Russell fired in three purple sectors to set the session’s fastest time at 1m17.998s. Carlos Sainz was his closest challenger in the last remaining Ferrari, pinching the fastest time in the final sector but ending 0.317s off the pace.

Yuki Tsunoda completed the top three for RB at 0.701s adrift but one place ahead of Max Verstappen, who ended his session six minutes early with a power unit problem, reporting “no power” from his Honda motor as he limped back to pit lane.

Nico Hulkenberg was fifth for Haas ahead of Oscar Piastri and Esteban Ocon.

Valtteri Bottas was a lofty eighth in his Sauber ahead of RB’s Liam Lawson and home favorite Sergio Perez, who completed the top 10 at 1.096s off the pace.

Franco Colapinto was 11th in his Williams car bearing a new yellow-topped color scheme ahead of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, the highest placed of the five stand-in drivers in action in FP1.

The Italian, substituting for Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, was 12th quickest and 1.2s slower than pace-setter Russell in his first grand prix session since the Italian Grand Prix, where he crashed out of practice just minutes into his F1 debut.

Fellow practice stand-in Pato O’Ward took the wheel of Lando Norris’s McLaren to set the 13th-best time in front of his home crowd.

Antonelli and O’Ward were two of five practice drivers in action in FP1, all of whom lost seat time to dual red flags in the first half of the session, the first having been to clear debris from the circuit in the opening minutes.

The others were Felipe Drugovich, who kicked off Fernando Alonso’s 400th grand prix weekend in the Spaniard’s Aston Martin, and Ferrari junior Robert Shwartzman, who completed the session in Zhou Guanyu’s Ferrari-powered Sauber, which ended the session 18th and 19th respectively ahead of only the damaged Bearman.

Between the two pairs of stand-ins were Kevin Magnussen in 14th ahead of Pierre Gasly — who reported an unidentified burning smell from his car early in the hour — Lance Stroll and the crashed-out Albon.

Story originally appeared on Racer