At the Hermanos Rodríguez circuit, Fernando Alonso’s medium-tyre runs in FP1 brought him within a second of the fastest time. He finished the session seventh, an unusually strong position for Aston Martin this season. The FIA classification recorded Alonso’s best lap as 1:19.357 over 29 laps, 1.229 seconds behind session leader Charles Leclerc, whose Ferrari set a 1:18.128. Alonso was just 0.147 seconds behind sixth-placed Pierre Gasly.
FP2 offered a more representative test after several rookies took part in the first session. Mercedes reserve driver Frederik Vesti and Red Bull’s Ayumu Iwasa were among them. Vesti placed third and Iwasa fifth in FP1. Alonso ended FP2 12th, seven tenths off the fastest time, one of his smallest gaps to the leader this year.
The results have raised expectations for the rest of the weekend, although Alonso is wary of reading too much into practice. Aston Martin also arrived in Singapore with high hopes, but the car did not deliver the performance the team expected. The wider challenge has been scoring points: before the Mexico City weekend, Alonso said the team could enter races needing around eight retirements among rivals to make points realistic.
Alonso said the AMR26 felt good on his side of the garage and worked well on track. He called it one of the team’s better starts to a weekend this season, while stressing that the Mexican circuit’s altitude made it a unique test. The FIA’s entry classification lists Alonso’s car as an Aston Martin/Honda.
The altitude had raised questions about how the 2026 power units would perform, including Honda’s. Alonso said they felt much like they had in previous years and that the changed conditions had not created an extra challenge.
Lance Stroll still had aspects of the car to optimise, information from the report, but felt competitive enough to target the points battle with Audi Racing Bull. RUSSPAIN has also covered a separate difficult weekend for Sergio Pérez in its Pérez race report.
