Ferrari struggled on soft tyres as Norris topped final practice

Final practice for the Mexican Grand Prix was dominated by discussion of Esteban Ocon’s dismissal from Haas and challenging track conditions. Drivers complained of a lack of grip throughout the final hour of practice, although running passed without any major interruptions. Lando Norris set the fastest time.

The third practice session was also plagued by failures and technical problems. Gabriel Bortoleto suffered another technical issue early on, with smoke pouring from his Audi on only his second lap. Initially, it appeared the team could resolve the problem and Gabi even climbed back into the car, but he did not leave the garage again.

There were also problems with the Ferrari power unit in Sergio Pérez’s Cadillac. The Mexican completed just one installation lap before returning to the garage, where the team decided to replace the power unit as a precaution.

Lance Stroll’s car also ran into trouble. The very same car had suffered a technical failure on Friday with Jak Crawford at the wheel. Aston Martin changed the chassis overnight as a precaution, but the problems clearly persist.

Drivers also complained of instability in the final sector. A strong tailwind at Turn 12 was making life difficult, and many struggled badly through the stadium section. Ferrari appeared largely untroubled, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton taking first and second on medium tyres in the opening part of practice.

Once they switched to softs, however, it was a very different story. Both Leclerc and Hamilton struggled badly on the soft tyres, and different names suddenly appeared at the top of the timesheets. Kimi Antonelli looked set to end Ferrari’s dominance of practice, but Lando Norris ultimately edged him into second by just one thousandth of a second.

Leclerc salvaged some pride for Ferrari with third place, finally managing to put together a reasonably competitive lap on roughly his fourth attempt on softs to finish around a tenth of a second off the pace.

Oscar Piastri confirmed McLaren’s solid form in fourth, while fifth-placed Max Verstappen, 0.351 seconds adrift, will need to make changes with his team before qualifying. Lewis Hamilton’s soft-tyre runs also failed to deliver, leaving him sixth and reinforcing the suggestion that Ferrari could struggle for qualifying pace. George Russell finished seventh and Isack Hadjar eighth.

Racing Bulls are clearly setting the pace in the midfield. Liam Lawson in ninth and Arvid Lindblad in tenth were more than four tenths of a second clear of Hülkenberg in 11th.

Qualifying starts at 9pm GMT time.