Da Costa tops times for Porsche in Mexico opening practice! Official F1 Journal 2024/25 Mexico City E-Prix free practice 1 report

Credit: Simon Galloway

Antonio Felix Da Costa delivered a strong lap time in the Mexico City E-Prix opening practice which was good enough to see him finish fastest on Friday.

Da Costa managed to beat the rest of the field with a 1:10.855 and that was good enough to the see the Poruguese driver end up with the fastest time in Friday's only session of the weekend.

The one-time champion beat young McLaren driver Taylor Barnard by just under a tenth of a second, with Nissan's Brit Oliver Rowland completing the top three.

Reigning champion and Da Costa's teammate Pascal Wehrlein would have to settle for fourth while championship leader Mitch Evans would complete the top five as all 22 drivers would set multiple lap times, in an extremely busy 40 minutes of free practice.

How free practice 1 for the 2024/25 Mexico City E-Prix unfolded

For the first time in 2025 Formula E was ready for a race weekend and it would be none other than round 2 of the 2024/25 championship, which would be taking place in the Mexican capital, Mexico City.

After hosting the opening round in the previous season of 2023/24, the Mexico City E-Prix would play host to round two of this year's championship following the season opener in Sao Paulo back in December 2024.

The green would be on at the end of the pit lane at 17:00 local time and there would be a steady start to proceedings with only a few drivers heading out onto the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, which is the same venue as the Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix - just a different layout.

Early on in the session, as is normal with free practice 1, there would be a full course yellow test, which was done by the Formula E FIA Race Director Scott Elkins. It would not last long and the green flags would be back out in no time at all.

The test did not quite go to plan for Andretti's Jake Dennis who suffered with an issue on his dash but it was nothing mechanical and it carried on. 

Across the first 10 minutes there would be more and more drivers taking to the circuit for the first time across the weekend with many drivers getting on with flying laps including the Andretti cars of Dennis and his teammate Nico Mueller. 

Muller would spend a large part at the top of the time sheets in the first 10 minutes but at the very end of the first quarter of free practice 1, he would no longer be top. Mitch Evans, the championship leader, would be the driver to do so.

However, Evans would not stay top for long as he would be beaten by both Andretti cars and the Kiro Race of Dan Ticktum. Mueller would sit top once again ahead of his teammate and 2022/23 champion Jake Dennis.

Mueller would have his lap time beaten by Nyck De Vries of Mahindra. Edoardo Mortara, Robin Frijns and Antonio Felix Da Costa would also leap above Muller. Evans would do and with 25 minutes remaining he would go back to fastest with a 1:12.979 - a time half a second quicker than second place driver Da Costa.

The top two in the championship would be split by Dennis who would be the next to go second and Pascal Wehrlein would also move into the top three - pushing his teammate Da Costa down to fourth. 

Drivers were improving and the order was changing in the middle of the field as the track was ramping up. As the session reached the halfway point it would be Evans who would be sitting at the top of the time sheet by 0.118 with his lap time of 1:12.979.

Rain would be starting to fall at the halfway point as Evans was quickest ahead of Dennis and Wehrlein as the top three. 20 minutes of the 40-minute session would remain. 

After a period of time in the pit lane that saw him drop to 11th, on his first lap back out on circuit, Mueller would go third fastest behind his teammate Dennis. Andretti were having a strong start to the weekend. 

Rain would be reported of falling by a few drivers on circuit as well as the virtual race engineer that appeared as a graphic on the screen. As ABT Lola Cars' Team principal, Mark Preston, was being interviewed by the Formula E media on the live broadcast, Lucas Di Grassi his experienced driver would jump up to the top spot.

The track was starting to ramp up more and more as the two DS Penske drivers, Jean-Eric Vergne and Max Gunther, would leap up to second and third respectively. The two NEOM McLaren drivers Sam Bird and Taylor Barnard would be completing the top five as the session was close to the final 10 minutes.

Di Grassi's time of 1:11.417 would be the time all the drivers would have to aim for and drivers would be getting closer as Sam Bird would go second and would be ahead of fellow British drivers Ticktum and Barnard, who would be third and fourth.

Despite being in second, Bird would still be trailing Di Grassi by 0.274. Bird would drop to third though as Mueller would return to the top two. Mueller was becoming a consistent performer in the session and was constantly being able to find time. Mueller would drop to third though as Da Costa would elevate himself to second.

​Speaking of ever present drivers at the top, Evans would return back to the top of the time sheets however he would fail to stay there as a great effort from Pascal Wehrlein who would lay down a 1:11.172.

Wehrlein would be narrowly ahead of Evans, by 0.028 to be precise, but even he would not stay top for long. It would be Wehrlein's Porsche teammate Da Costa, who would blow the time out of the water.

Da Costa would lay a time down that would be over three tenths quicker than his Porsche teammate and reigning champion Wehrlein. The Portuguese racer's lap time would be a 1:10.855 and would be the time to beat for the rest of the field as the opening practice headed into the final five minutes,

Soon enough the chequered flag would be out and that would signal the end of the session and Da Costa would stay on top of the time sheets with a fantastic effort on his final lap time of 1:10.855. This would be under a tenth faster than second place Taylor Barnard who put together a great final lap for NEOM McLaren. Oliver Rowland would complete the top three for Nissan.

Da Costa's Porsche teammate Pascal Wehrlein would be fourth ahead of Jaguar's Mitch Evans completing the top five for Jaguar. Lucas Di Grassi would take sixth at the end of FP1 ahead of the second Nissan driven by Norman Nato.

Sebastian Buemi, Edoardo Mortara and Stoffel Vandoorne would complete the top 10 as the first of two free practice sessions in Mexico City came to a close. Action would return in Mexico City for free practice 2 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, which would kick start the day of the second E-Prix of the season.

2024/25 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship: Round 2 - Mexico City E-Prix

1. Antonio Felix Da Costa (Portugal, Porsche)
2. Taylor Barnard (Great Britain, NEOM McLaren)
3. Oliver Rowland (Great Britain, Nissan)
4. Pascal Wehrlein (Germany, Porsche)
5. Mitch Evans (New Zealand, Jaguar)
6. Lucas Di Grassi (Brazil, ABT Lola Cars)
7. Norman Nato (France, Nissan)
8. Sebastian Buemi (Switzerland,  Envision Racing)
9. Edoardo Mortara (Switzerland, Mahindra Racing)
10. Stoffel Vandoorne (Belgium, Maserati)
11. Nyck De Vries (Netherlands, Mahindra Racing)
12. Dan Ticktum (Great Britain, Kiro Race)
13. Nico Mueller (Switzerland, Andretti)
14. Jake Dennis (Great Britain, Andretti)
15. Nick Cassidy (New Zealand, Jaguar)
16. Sam Bird (Great Britain, NEOM McLaren)
17. Jean Eric-Vergne (France, DS Penske)
18. Jake Hughes (Great Britain, Maserati)
19. Maximilian Gunther (Germany, DS Penske)
20. Robin Frijns (Netherlands, Envision Racing)
21. David Beckmann (Germany, Kiro Race)
22. Zane Maloney (Barbados, ABT Lola Cars)

Brandon Whiteside
Writer & X Contributor - F1 Journal