The first free practice session for the Formula One Mexican Grand Prix was something of a crapshoot.
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez always is a difficult track to get comfortable on, though it was made even more difficult Friday because the series has yet to race on the Mexico City track. Drivers therefore had to figure out how their 2017-spec F1 cars behave 7,500 feet above sea level, as was evident from the copious spins in FP1.
Throughout the entire session, teams struggled to get their cars to work on the dirty track in thin air. As a result, everybody from Force India reserve driver Alfonso Celis, to three-time world champion Lewis Hamilton had a corner get the better of them.
As unusual as it is to see so many veteran racers lose control of their cars, it’s far from the strangest thing we’ve seen during an F1 practice session this season.
