Ferrari set the pace in an incredibly tight Practice 1 at the Mexico City Grand Prix on Friday.
After all the drivers completed their initial run on the hard tyre, the red-striped softs were brought out for the rest of the one-hour session at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
And Sainz would put in the best time of 1m20.707s to pip teammate Charles Leclerc by just 0.046s.
It wasn’t a perfect session for the Monegasque though, as he had to abandon his early hard tyre run due to a puncture and completed his best soft tyre laps a little earlier than the rest.
Behind, the two Red Bulls set identical times in third and fourth as Max Verstappen had a scruffy start to the weekend, including a spin in the Esses.
Just listen to the crowd noise as @SChecoPerez gets on track for the first time this weekend ?#MexicoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/GFkwuV8RdJ
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 28, 2022
Lewis Hamilton improved to fifth for Mercedes, just ahead of Fernando Alonso in sixth as P3 to P6 all lapped in the 1m20.8s bracket.
Valtteri Bottas was seventh in the recently improved Alfa Romeo, with Lando Norris eighth, Pierre Gasly ninth and Sebastian Vettel completing a top 10 covered by just 0.818s.
Further down, a brake issue cost Daniel Ricciardo track time in 11th and Zhou Guanyu had to be recovered from the pit-lane exit en route to 12th.
Lance Stroll, Mick Schumacher and Nicholas Latifi completed the regular driver standings as five young drivers took to the track.
round 2 for @LiamLawson30, let’s gooo! ? pic.twitter.com/aubEqLDtuR
— Scuderia AlphaTauri (@AlphaTauriF1) October 28, 2022
Liam Lawson would be the fastest of them in 16th for AlphaTauri, but the Kiwi caused the session to be ended early after coming to a halt with an apparent engine issue.
Likely 2023 Williams driver Logan Sargeant was 17th, ahead of Nyck De Vries in his fourth outing of the year and second with Mercedes.
Aussie Jack Doohan was 19th while Pietro Fittipaldi brought up the field and brought out the red flag after coming to a stop in the Haas.
Full results from Practice 1 can be seen below:
Full classification from FP1!@SChecoPerez and @Max33Verstappen both record the exact same lap time, AND number of laps!
Now that’s spooky ?#MexicoGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/kfsdcTxrjm
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 28, 2022