“Mexico Award”: Leclerc fastest in both practice sessions

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc recorded the fastest time in two practice sessions on Friday before the Mexico City Grand Prix, which is scheduled to witness the coronation of Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli (20 years old) as the youngest champion in the history of Formula 1.

The Italian driver missed the media day on Thursday to recover from a viral illness, but he finished second in the first practice session, and fourth in the second on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit, located at a high altitude in the Mexican capital.

Antonelli is 123 points ahead of his teammate and closest rival, George Russell, in the overall standings, and needs only two points - to occupy ninth place - on Sunday to clinch the title, while the British driver needs to win tomorrow to remain in the competition mathematically, with four rounds remaining at the end of the season.

Leclerc, who was also fastest in the two Friday sessions in Texas last week before Antonelli's victory, recorded the best time of 1 minute and 17.827 seconds in the second session, when the differences in times were very small after he topped the first session by 0.659 seconds with a time of 1:18.128.

Leclerc said: “In general, our performance looks quite good, but we still need to work on some factors that determine our performance. “The conditions were very difficult on the track, as the ground was slippery.”

McLaren's Lando Norris, the defending champion and last year's winner, finished second in the second session by 0.103 seconds, while Russell came in third.

Leclerc's teammate and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, a two-time winner in Mexico, stopped on the track, resulting in the virtual safety car being used half an hour before the end of the session. “I lost all power,” the British driver said.

Red flags were raised and the session was stopped after Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, a five-time winner in Mexico, collided with Racing Bulls driver William Lawson - his former teammate - 47 minutes before the end of the session, leaving debris from the Dutch driver's car on the track.

The first session of testing began without ten main drivers, as all teams - except Ferrari - gave young drivers the opportunity to drive.

Russell was one of the drivers who missed the session, and was replaced by Fred Veste, the Mercedes reserve driver, who recorded the third fastest lap, 0.733 seconds behind Leclerc, while Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton took fourth place.

Japanese Ayumu Iwasa, who replaced Max Verstappen, the Red Bull driver and four-time world champion, was the fastest among the drivers not participating in the race, occupying fifth place.

He was followed by Alpine driver Pierre Gasly, Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso, McLaren driver Oscar Piastri, Haas driver Uli Biermann, and Racing Bulls driver Arvid Lindblad.

Bulgarian Nikola Tsolov, a contender for the Formula 2 title, who replaced Lawson in Racing Bulls, complained of losing feeling in his leg, but achieved a commendable 12th place behind Red Bull driver Ishak Hajjar.

British Freddie Slater (18 years old) faced problems in his first appearance in the Formula 1 tests, as Audi technicians kept the cooling fan fixed to the side of the car while the driver was setting off on the track. However, he finished the tests far from last place after completing 14 laps.

Aston Martin reserve driver Jack Crawford stopped at the track with a suspected power unit issue.

Leonardo Fornaroli, the defending Formula 2 champion, replaced Norris in these tests and finished 17th, as a slight tire lock caused the car to slide onto the grass.

American Colton Herta was the slowest in the Cadillac driven by Valtteri Bottas, but he completed 30 laps.

France Football magazine revealed that Englishman Harry Kane won the Ballon d'Or for the best player in the world with the smallest margin between the winner and runner-up since the adoption of the current voting system, beating Frenchman Kylian Mbappe by only 28 points.

In its Friday issue, the magazine published details of the voting results.

Kane, the German Bayern Munich striker, who became the first Englishman to win the award since Michael Owen in 2001, received 40 votes in first place out of 100 members of the jury, collecting 1,055 points.

Mbappe, captain of the French national team and Real Madrid striker, received 23 votes in first place and finished the vote with 1,027 points.

The previous minimum difference was 41 points, when the Spanish Rodri, the English player for Manchester City at the time and the current Barcelona player, surpassed the Brazilian Vinicius Junior, the Real Madrid striker, by 41 points in the 2024 edition.

Last season, Paris Saint-Germain striker Ousmane Dembélé scored 1,380 points, 321 points ahead of Barcelona star Lamine Jamal.

This summer, Jamal won the World Cup with Spain, but he came third in the Ballon d'Or voting with 881 points, 174 points behind Caen.

The Ballon d'Or is awarded based on a vote by journalists, with one journalist for each country among the top 100 countries in the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) rankings for men, and the top 50 countries for women.