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George Russell and Mercedes started the Mexican Grand Prix on top, going fastest in a fraught opening practice session that featured two red flags.
Russell topped FP1 on a 1m17.998s, just over eight tenths of a second adrift of Charles Leclerc's pole position time from last year.
Sainz was Russell's nearest competition, ending up just over three tenths behind Russell. Yuki Tsunoda completed the top three for RB, seven tenths off Russell, with Max Verstappen fourth.
Verstappen lost the final minutes of the session as his Red Bull team assessed his RB20 for an issue.
“Something wrong with the engine mate, I have no power," Verstappen told his race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase shortly before pitting.
"There's something wrong with the engine mate.." 📻
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 25, 2024
Max's Red Bull has a problem - that could be a power unit penalty if it can't be fixed 👀#F1 #MexicoGP pic.twitter.com/AMIL22zZbL
It wasn't a great session for McLaren either. Oscar Piastri was nine tenths slower than Russell and struggled with the balance aboard his MCL38 throughout the session.
“It feels pretty terrible still, I don’t really know to be honest," Piastri said when asked if he wanted to go for another push lap or carry on with continuous laps.
IndyCar race winner Pato O'Ward took Lando Norris's car for the session, one of five young drivers standing in for their practice chance.
O'Ward ended up just three tenths slower than than Piastri, placing him 13th overall, right behind 2025 Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli who avoided the kind of shunt that curtailed his FP1 debut at Monza.
Antonelli completed 19 laps and ended up 1.2s adrift of Russell's best.
The first red flag was required for marshals to remove a piece of debris on the racing line at Turn 1 - something Antonelli ran over shortly before the stoppage.
FP1 was restarted five minutes but it was stopped again shortly after for a bizarre collision between Alex Albon and Ollie Bearman.
Albon lost control of his Williams while passing Bearman in the middle sector’s sweeping turns, collecting Bearman’s Ferrari and ending their sessions instantly.
Both drivers were baffled, Albon initially blamed Bearman over the radio while Bearman told Ferrari “I don’t know what more I could have done”.
BEARMAN AND ALBON COLLIDE! 💥
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 25, 2024
Red flags are out 🔴
Both drivers are OK.#F1 #MexicoGP pic.twitter.com/xyV49E0qGc
The stewards will investigate both drivers for their collision after FP1, as well as Sauber stand-in Robert Shwartzman - 19th in that session, nine tenths slower than Valtteri Bottas - for allegedly overtaking under yellows after the Bearman/Albon shunt.
Aston Martin FP1 stand-in Felipe Drugovich's best effort was within two tenths off Lance Stroll, but they were 18th and 16th on the timesheet respectively.
Bearman was slowest of all, unable to get a proper push lap on the softs before his session-ending shunt.
