Calum Nicholas
Former F1 mechanic on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra

Image source, Reuters

Liam Lawson has had a really good year. He's performed well and he seems like he's on top of a lot of the things that he wasn't previously.

Leonardo Fornaroli, in the McLaren, has just popped his car into the top 10.

Lovely work from the rookie, who sits eighth with a time of 1:13.756.

Red Bull's Max Verstappen has been on the radio to say that his gear shifts are "unacceptable".

The Red Bull driver has just pipped Kimi Antonelli to the top of the leaderboard by eight tenths of a second. Speedy.

It's like pass the parcel at the top of the leaderboard.

Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli is the fastest driver now, the new world champion clocks in a time of 1:12.777.

Max Verstappen is second in the Red Bull and Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari is third.

Image source, Getty Images

Isack Hadjar calls into the Red Bull radio to say he is having an issue with his seat.

Ferrari's Dino Beganovic is the fastest of the rookies so far in this session. He is 14th and on a lap time of 1:14.793.

Beganovic is in this session for Charles Leclerc who took a trip home for the birth of his daughter, Bianca.

McLaren's Leonardo Fornaroli, who is in for Oscar Piastri, is the only driver to run the soft tyres in this session. The Italian rookie is currently 21st.

We are back. The first lot of cars have made their way out on the track now.

40 minutes to go.

I am keeping an eye now on rookie Rafael Camara, who makes his F1 debut in Brazil. He is currently 17th.

Meanwhile, Cadillac's Colton Herta has been noted for a red-flag infringement.

It seems like the issue was to do with the gearbox for Audi's Freddie Slater.

"The car has switched off," he tells the Audi team.

The session is about to resume with the cars all lined up in the pit lane.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

George Russell says he plans to have a "deep, deep look in the mirror" to work out how he can improve after a disappointing 2026 season.

The Mercedes driver has watched team-mate Kimi Antonelli dominate on his way to becoming the youngest Formula 1 champion in history, while Russell has won only three races compared with the Italian's nine, despite starting the year as championship favourite.

Russell says luck has not been on his side, but wants to ensure he does everything he can to understand why he has lacked pace.

The Briton said: "It wasn't meant to be this season but you also need to look at yourself in the mirror and think: 'What could I have done better'?

"Is all of the misfortune truly misfortune? Or is it actually things in our control that could have been better?

"So you need to just have a deep, deep look in the mirror and pick yourself up again and go from there."

• Read more

Red flagpublished at 15:43 GMT

15:43 GMT

Unfortunately Freddie Slater can't get the Audi restarted so the red flag has been waved.

The rest of the grid will make their way back to the garages.

This is not what he would have wanted, Slater missed a chunk of practice in Mexico City last week too after a cooling fan remained attached to his Audi.

Yellow flagpublished at 15:42 GMT

15:42 GMT

The yellow flag has been waved.

Audi rookie Freddie Slater has stopped out on track. He has only managed seven laps so far.

1. Max Verstappen (Red Bull)

2. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)

3. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)

4. Lando Norris (McLaren)

5. George Russell (Mercedes)

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent

George Russell starts this weekend knowing already that he faces another difficult race with the news that he has a five-place grid penalty for taking a new engine component.

It’s his second grid drop in four races as a result of Mercedes' early-season reliability issues.

"We always had to take a grid penalty at some point between Singapore and the end of the season," Russell said. "We felt like this was a good place to take it. Lewis [Hamilton] had a big grid penalty here a number of years ago [in 2021] and did pretty well. Five places doesn't seem that bad and we’ll try to come back through."

The penalty gives him a new engine, and the small power increase that comes with that, but it is not a new specification of engine. Mercedes do have another upgrade potentially in the wings permitted under F1’s additional development and upgrade opportunities (ADUO) system. But they have not decided what to do about that yet. For info, that will be a new-spec turbo, not to the engine block itself.

There is a flurry of fastest lap times between the Mexico City podium finishers, Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Antonelli.

Max Verstappen has taken back the lead at the top now, with a time of 1:12.959.

Friday is set to be cloudy for first practice, but rain is forecasted for second practice.

Temperatures could reach highs of 24C.

The first lot of times are on the board now and the fastest driver is Red Bull's Max Verstappen, with a time of 1:13.341.

Behind him is the new world champion Kimi Antonelli and Lando Norris in the McLaren makes up the top three.

Oh dear, Dino Beganovic in the Ferrari almost drove into the back of Ollie Bearman's Haas. It seemed like the young driver was focusing on pressing buttons on his steering wheel.

All good, he is quick to react and continues on.

I am keeping an eye on Colton Herta in the Cadillac, he needs just one point for that all-important super licence.

The cars have made their way on to the track for the first session.

Max Verstappen is just heading out of the Red Bull garage on to the track.

It looks like everyone has made their way out apart from Williams rookie Luke Browning.

Image source, Getty Images

Colton Herta will participate in his sixth first practice session for Cadillac at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil.

The 26-year-old needs just one point in order to obtain the FIA super licence and therefore be allowed to complete in Formula 1.

Completing a practice session offers a driver one point.

A driver must collect a minimum of 40 points over a two or three-year period to be applicable for an F1 super licence.

The lights have turned green, time for first practice.