Lap records
The Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez sits more than 2,200 metres above sea level, and that altitude plays a part in the lap times and top speeds of F1 cars here. The thin air means less aerodynamic drag, so straight-line speeds are sky-high (the fastest on the calendar) but it also means less downforce and less power.
For a lap record to be “official” it needs to have been set during the race itself. Cars on race day are usually carrying more fuel and running on tyres that have already done a few laps, so they’re a bit slower than they are in qualifying, when the cars are as light as possible and on fresh rubber.
F1 lap record at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
The official F1 lap record — the one set in a race — is a 1:17.774, set by Valtteri Bottas in his Mercedes during the 2021 Mexico City Grand Prix.
The outright qualifying lap record, and the fastest lap ever set around the current layout, belongs to Max Verstappen. He set a 1:14.758 in his Red Bull during qualifying for the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix, and as of the most recent Grand Prix nobody has gone quicker.
F1 Average Speed at the Mexico GP
Bottas’s race lap record works out to an average speed of 199.2kph / 123.8mph around the 4.304km circuit.
Verstappen’s quicker qualifying lap, unsurprisingly, comes out higher: 207.2kph / 128.8mph average for the lap.
Both of those are well down on Monza’s average lap speeds (Lando Norris’s 2025 Monza race lap averaged 257.8kph, for comparison) — proof that however fast the cars are down Mexico City’s straight, the stadium section and the tighter infield corners drag the average right back down.
F1 Top Speeds at the Mexican Grand Prix
Because of the altitude, the air is so much thinner at the Mexico City GP. The race has effectively taken over from Monza as the venue with the highest top speeds of the F1 season — the cars run at very low drag levels here and still corner reasonably well, since there’s less air to generate downforce from in the first place.
The outright F1 top speed record at Mexico City was set at the 2016 Mexican Grand Prix, when Valtteri Bottas’s Williams FW38 was clocked at 372.5kph / 231.46mph through the speed trap — the fastest official trap speed ever recorded in a Formula 1 race. Williams’s own telemetry suggested Bottas was still accelerating when he crossed the speed trap, and the team has cited slightly different figures in different places over the years — anywhere from around 373kph up to 378kph — for how fast the car had reached by the time he got to the braking zone for Turn 1.
It will be interesting to see how the modern era of Formla 1 cars compares, with their lower downforce and 50% hybrid power.
Other Series' Lap Records
Mexico City doesn’t currently host F2, F3 or the F1 Academy as part of the Grand Prix support package.
Over the years the circuit did however support a run of WEC, Porsche Supercup and F4 NACAM races.
The lap records from those events still stand:
- LMP1: 1:25.730, Brendon Hartley (Porsche 919 Hybrid), 2017 6 Hours of Mexico
- LMP2: 1:33.670, Bruno Senna (Oreca 07), 2017 6 Hours of Mexico
- LM GTE: 1:40.212, Sam Bird (Ferrari 488 GTE), 2017 6 Hours of Mexico
- Porsche Carrera Cup / Supercup: 1:43.593, Thomas Preining (Porsche 911 (991 II) GT3 Cup), 2018 Mexico City Porsche Supercup round
- Formula 4 (NACAM): 1:46.087, Moisés de la Vara (Mygale M14-F4), 2017 Mexico City NACAM F4 roun
