Leclerc produced a best effort of 1:17.827 seconds

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fastest in both practice sessions on Friday for a Mexico City Grand Prix set to crown 20-year-old Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli as Formula One’s youngest champion.

Antonelli missed Thursday’s media day to recover from a viral illness, but the Italian was second on the timesheets in the first session and fourth in the later one at the capital’s high-altitude Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Antonelli is 123 points clear of teammate George Russell at the top and needs only two more points, a ninth place, to be sure of the title while the Briton has to win on Sunday to stay mathematically in the game with four rounds remaining.

Leclerc, who was also fastest in both Friday sessions in Texas last week before Antonelli won, produced a best effort of 1:17.827 seconds in the second practice, when the times were much closer, after going top in the first by 0.659 with a lap of 1:18.128.

“Overall, our performance looks quite all right, but we still need to work on some of our limiting factors. It was quite tricky on track today, as the surface was slippery,” said Leclerc.

McLaren’s reigning world champion and last year’s winner, Lando Norris, was second fastest in the later session, 0.103 slower, with Russell third.

Leclerc’s teammate and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, a two-time winner in Mexico, stopped on track and triggered a virtual safety car with half an hour remaining. “I lost all power,” said the Briton.

Red flags were shown and the session halted after Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, a five-time winner in Mexico, and Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson — a former teammate — made contact with 47 minutes to go, leaving debris from the Dutch driver’s car on the track.

“He literally just drove into me. Every weekend,” said Lawson over the radio.

Verstappen hit back at the New Zealander, whose place has yet to be confirmed for next year.

“At the end of the day, it is not going to change my weekend, but if I were him I would act a little smarter. And when you’re fighting for your seat, it’s not very smart behaviour,” he said.