Mexico City GP FP3: Norris from Hamilton, Verstappen struggles
F1 NewsSaturday, 25 October 2025 at 20:31
Lando Norris bounced back after a challenging Friday and went fastest in the final practice for the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix as Lewis Hamilton was second fastest with Max Verstappen struggling.
Norris posted a 1:16.633 to go fastest in FP3, firing a warning shot ahead of qualifying as he was 0.345s clear of Hamilton who was second fastest in the Ferrari as George Russell was over half a second slower than the #4 McLaren in third place.
Charles Leclerc was fourth with Oscar Piastri in fifth as reigning Formula 1 Champion, Max Verstappen was only sixth, after topping FP2, and was sixth tenths of the pace of Norris.
The Red Bull ace expressed his concern about his RB21's race pace on Friday and was out on track early in FP3 doing some long run checking the changes the team applied overnight.
But it seems that Verstappen's one-lap pace, and while his lap time shows his power unit may be turned down, there is always the chance that Red Bull have dialed his car more towards race pace , thus counting on their star driver's talent to do the business in qualifying.
In all cases, we will find out real soon in qualifying.
Going further down the order, Kimi Antonelli finished the session seventh fastest, 0.620s slowed than the best time and 0.143s faster than Isack Hadjar who was eighth fastest in his VCARB.
Yuki Tsunoda and Gabriel Bortoleto were ninth and tenth respectively.
Buildup towards FP1
Verstappen may have emerged as the driver to beat after free practice on Friday was concluded, but the Dutchman has expressed concern regarding his RB21's race pace despite showing dominant one-lap pace.
He complained in FP2 that he had no rear grip on the Medium tyres and that he felt like he was driving on ice which is something other drivers suffered from as well.
And while Ferrari emerged as Verstappen's closest challenger, we are yet to see whether those Red Cars can keep going well as we have known them to drop in performance as the weekend progresses for reasons unknown to us and sometimes to them as well.
McLaren did not enjoy the best of Fridays while Mercedes as well had a tough time due to the high temperatures despite Antonelli's strong form in FP2.
With several questions emerging after Friday's running in Mexico City we now look to see how FP3 pans out and what the teams have managed to do overnight with the data they have collected as their focus will be shifting towards qualifying later in the day.
FP3 Session Highlights
Dry condition continued into FP3, while track temperatures remained elevated recording 44 degrees Celsius at the start of the final practice while air temperature was 23 degrees.
Lance Stroll led the pack out on track with Medium tyres and was followed by Fernando Alonso in the other green car. Otherwise the track remained calm as other drivers waited in the garages.
Verstappen them joined the Aston Martin pair out on track, after five minutes elapsed from the session. Hamilton followed in the Ferrari.
As more cars followed, Hamilton went deep into Turn 4 on his lap and aborted. He then ran wide again at Turn 1. The grip on the track was very low at that moment.
Verstappen went on and posted the first lap time of the session on the Mediums. A 1:18.914.
The track action gradually increased as the running went beyond the ten-minute mark as Carlos Sainz bolted on Soft tyres and set the fastest time.
15 minutes into the session and the McLarens finally made their way out on track, Norris leading Piastri.
Grip seemed to remain as an issue with Norris going deep at Turn 4 and aborts his first timed lap, while Hamilton once again had an off-track excursion there.
Hadjar, on the other hand, was irritated with one of the McLarens as he was on a fast lap with Soft tyres bolted to his car.
As the first half of the session was almost over, Verstappen started some long runs with high fuel loads as Red Bull looked to sort out their race pace.
Stroll, in the Aston Martin, as well as Russell, in the Mercedes, both complained about lack of grip on the Medium tyres, on the Medium tyres that is.
Then Antonelli ran wide at Turns 4 & 5 as Bortoleto soon after gad a moment at Turn 11 and ran wide. The Italian then ran wide at Turn 12 ruining the decent lap he was on.
With 20 minutes remaining, Norris was on top of the timing screens but it was quite close behind him.
But a few moments later, Russell put in a decent lap and dropped Norris to second by 0.123s as more teams started using their Soft tyres for some qualifying runs.
Alex Albon was on a fast one, two purple sectors, but then he messed it up in the third and ran wide in Turn 13 after a massive lockup.
"I'm telling you guys, it feels weird," Albon radioed after that.
The names started getting shuffled on the leaderboard as each and every driver went on a qualifying simulation as the track continued to evolve.
Albon, once again, had an issue slowing down his car in Turn 4 and ran wide.
Hadjar's road rage tantrums kept coming as now he was unhappy with his compatriot, Gasly, who appeared in front of him on track.
Albon then reported an issue with power delivery on his car.
Verstappen after going for another run on Softs and improving to sixth only, reported that he lacked grip at the front and the rear.
Bortoleto was also unhappy with a McLaren, Piastri in particular, towards the end of the session that was concluded with practice starts as Norris was fastest.
Mexico City GP FP3 Classification
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