Oscar Piastri topped the third and final practice session of the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix, leading a McLaren one-two ahead of team-mate Lando Norris.
The Australian beat Norris by a margin of 0.059s with the McLarens three-tenths clear of the nearest challengers.
Friday saw practice running become extremely fragmented with two red flag periods in FP1 and another in FP2.
In the opening session, a fast clash between William’s Alex Albon and Ferrari’s Oliver Bearman caused a significant stoppage.
Then in FP2, Mercedes George Russell crashed, triggering a 24-minute delay and a hefty repair job for his mechanics.
FP2 was further impacted by the Pirelli tyre test, meaning little representative running commenced on the opening day of the Mexico City GP weekend.
Moreover, with Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Norris, Fernando Alosno and Zhou Guanyu all making way for rookies in FP1, running in Saturday’s final practice took on an extra layer of importance.
This was also the case for championship leader Max Verstappen, who had just four laps of running on Friday due to persistent power unit issues.
A PU replacement from his existing pool would hopefully set the Red Bull driver on a better course on Saturday.
RB looked strong in the hands of Yuki Tsunoda on Friday, who was third in both sessions with Liam Lawson featuring in the top-10.
Looking to push on from that, Lawson had a monetary mishap with a spin through the stadium complex after clipping the inside kerb at Turn 15.
Minutes later cheers roared through that very same section of the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez as Sergio Perez committed to his first run.
The form man coming into the session was Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, fastest in FP2 and on top halfway through FP3, 0.169s ahead of his team-mate Charles Leclerc.
McLaren’s Lando Norris was behind the two Ferraris in the order at this stage, with home hero Perez punching in the fourth fastest time as the clock ticked past 30 minutes.
Times tumble in final 15 minutes of FP3
As FP3 drew nearer to its end, a flurry of softy tyre runs saw the leaderboard evolve in the final fifteen minutes.
Verstappen vaulted himself to the top of the leaderboard with a 1:17.003s attempt, before both McLarens broke into the 1:16s barrier.
Piastri led by 0.059s over Norris, with the rest of the field half a second back with 10 minutes to go.
Not to be outdone, Sainz sought to light up the timing screens, setting a purple first sector as he tried to reclaim the top spot.
But the second half of the lap didn’t pay off for the Spaniard and he could only muster third, three-tenths off of the McLarens.
The McLarens would maintain this advantage over the rest of the field as the session drew to a close with Sainz the closest challenger with his 0.340s deficit.
Verstappen manged fourth in his Red Bull, half a second back from the ultimate benchmark set by Piastri.
Hamilton rounded out the top five ahead of Leclerc with Tsunoda and RB continuing to impress with seventh.
Russell guided his repaired Mercedes to eighth with Haas’ Kevin Magnussen in ninth.
Lawson confirmed RB’s pace in Mexico with the 10th fastest time.
READ MORE – F1 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix – FP3 Results
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