Andrea Kimi Antonelli will continue preparations for his Formula 1 debut by making his second appearance in a first practice session for Mercedes this week.

The driver Mercedes named as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement next year will take over the seven-times world champion’s car for the first practice session at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.Antonelli’s only previous outing for the team in an official F1 practice session ended after just five laps. He impressed the team with his immediate speed on his debut at Monza, but lost control of his car at Parabolica and crashed.

Following last weekend’s sprint event at the Circuit of the Americas, which featured only one hour of practice, Mercedes hope to use the extra running time available in Mexico to improve their understanding of the upgrades they introduced there. The team was puzzled by the performance of its upgraded W15, which was a contender for pole position on Friday but was never as competitive again. Hamilton and George Russell both spun off during the course of the weekend.

Antonelli’s second run means Mercedes will have fulfilled their obligation to give up one practice session in each of their cars to a junior driver. He is the fourth driver confirmed to participate in practice for this weekend’s event, joining IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward at McLaren, Formula 2 champion Felipe Drugovich at Aston Martin and World Endurance Championship driver Robert Shwartzman at Sauber.

First practice drivers who have appeared in 2024