Charles Leclerc heads Kimi Antonelli and Nico Hulkenberg in opening practice

Charles Leclerc finished fastest in Free Practice 1 for the Mexico City Grand Prix, the Ferrari driver heading Kimi Antonelli and Nico Hulkenberg.

Leclerc finished just one-tenth faster than Antonelli, with Hulkenberg a further three-tenths back from Drivers’ Championship leader Oscar Piastri in fourth.

The McLaren driver gained some crucial running on his title rivals Lando Norris and Max Verstappen, who could only watch on from the pit wall.

This was because no fewer than nine rookie drivers were in action during the one-hour session on Friday, with Kick Sauber the only team not to field a junior driver at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez.

While all the stand-ins were keen to impress, the likes of Arvid Lindblad (Red Bull) and Paul Aron (Alpine) took to the track with greater emphasis as the possibility of graduating to the championship next season remains within their grasps.

Esteban Ocon’s 1m 20.934s initially left him top of the times as dust was cleared from the circuit in the early stages, with lap times continuing to drop as Isack Hadjar and Antonelli traded top spot between themselves.

Piastri became the first driver to dip below the 1m 20s barrier, the Australian setting a 1m 19.035s and the first driver to use the soft tyre after just 25 minutes of action, which left him nearly one second clear of the field initially.

Leclerc briefly occupied top spot as proceedings reached the halfway point with a 1m 18.895s, before Piastri and then Antonelli went quicker, the Italian leaving the benchmark as a 1m 18.487s on the red-walled tyres.

Leclerc reasserted himself with the fastest time – a 1m 18.380s – which would finish as the sessions’s best from Antonelli, with Piastri splitting the two Sauber’s of Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto.

Lindblad was the best of the stand-in drivers and finished sixth at the wheel of Max Verstappen’s RB21, just six-tenths behind Leclerc as Red Bull brought a new floor and cooling package to Mexico this weekend.

Yuki Tsunoda in the second Red Bull was eighth behind Ocon, as Franco Colapinto (Alpine) and Alex Albon (Williams) completed the top 10.

Hadjar was 11th, the Racing Bulls driver having been forced to reverse out of the Turn 12 run-off area after running deep at one stage, ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.

From the remaining stand-in drivers, McLaren’s Pato O’Ward led Frederik Vesti (Mercedes) and Aron. The remainder of the order was made up of Ryo Hirakawa (Haas), Ayumu Iwasa (Racing Bulls), Luke Browning (Williams), Jak Crawford (Aston Martin) and Antonio Fuoco, 2.4s behind the other Ferrari of Leclerc.

All 20 regular season drivers will be back in action for Free Practice 2 later on Friday.