Oscar Piastri dominated the crucial final practice session for the Mexico Grand Prix ahead of McLaren teammate Lando Norris. FP3 was the first session of the weekend not interrupted by red flags, and with FP2 on Friday afternoon commandeered by Pirelli for a test of 2025 tires, the teams had plenty of work to do to validate the setup changes before qualifications.

McLaren, who struggled to achieve optimal pace on the first day of racing, came out quickest, with Piastri taking first place with a best time of 1:16.492. His teammate Norris, the only McLaren driver to lead the team’s bottom tier, was adrift at 0059 seconds.

Papaya’s pace was powerful enough to upset Ferrari considerably, with Carlos Sainz 0.34 seconds off the pace after dominating Friday’s race. The Spaniard was very confident in his car’s race pace, but he was optimistic that the SF-24 would at least be in the one-lap fight with McLaren.

Sainz was comfortably McLaren’s closest challenger, however, with Max Verstappen fourth, 0.511 seconds behind Piastri.

The Dutchman complained of having no grip on either axle after his fastest lap, losing the most time to the leaders in the final sector, especially in the technical section of the stadium.

Lewis Hamilton was impressed with his 0.568 second lead in fifth, after reckoning he had put in a fast lap to find himself more than half a second off the pace.

Charles Leclerc finished sixth in the second Ferrari, having lost most of his time in the second and third sectors, although the Monegasque would have been competing for fourth place had he chained his best three sectors together in one lap.

Yuki Tsunoda was impressive in seventh for RB 0.81 seconds off the pace, beating Mercedes’ George Russell. Russell was driving a largely rebuilt car after his serious crash in FP2, with the team revealing that the #63 car required an overnight chassis change but its engine and gearbox were salvageable.

Kevin Magnussen finished ninth for Haas with Liam Lawson completing the top 10, 1.002 seconds off the pace.

Alex Albon was 11th ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Franco Colapinto just outside the top 10.

Sergio Perez struggled to finish 14th, 1.295 seconds off the pace, with the Mexican complaining of insufficient front grip to attack the corners. He lost just over 0.2 seconds per sector to his teammate, although his best time would have been closer without a blockage in the stadium section.

Fernando Alonso finished 15th as the best-placed Aston Martin ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, who said his Haas car struggled with “numb” brakes early in the session.

Lance Stroll was 17th ahead of Esteban Ocon, Zhou Guanyu and Pierre Gasly.