The Cadillac Formula 1® Team began its Mexico City Grand Prix weekend with two Free Practice sessions today, as hometown hero Checo Pérez marked the start of his 300th Grand Prix weekend.

American Test Driver Colton Herta took over Valtteri Bottas' seat for FP1, completing 30 laps and finishing P22, while Pérez placed P18 in front of his home crowd. Bottas returned to the cockpit for FP2, finishing P21 in a session interrupted by red flags due to debris. Pérez rounded out the opening day in P18 again.

The Cadillac Formula 1® Team duo will return to the track tomorrow for the final practice session, FP3, at 11:30 local time, followed by qualifying at 3 p.m.

Checo Pérez: "It's a very special moment for me to be back on track at home in Mexico, in front of my fans and my people. It's been a challenging day as I haven't been feeling well, health-wise. Hopefully, I'll be back to 100% tomorrow. I'll focus on getting some rest tonight. It looks like we're closer than we expected, which is positive. Hopefully, we can have a strong day tomorrow in qualifying and maximise our potential."

Valtteri Bottas: "It was a tricky session, particularly coming into FP2 after missing FP1. The track is one I know pretty well, which helped me get back up to speed, but we're still working to find the right setup and extract more performance from the car. We also need to keep an eye on reliability, particularly with the brakes and engine, so there's still plenty of work to do ahead of tomorrow."

Colton Herta: "Today was very enjoyable. I always have a grin whenever I drive this car. There's always lots to learn driving a new track and with the challenges of the elevation which makes it tricky. But I had a lot of joy trying to figure that out and it's great to have back-to-back weekends in the car. Every session you're able to learn a little bit more about the car, about yourself and what you can do better for the next one."

Marcin Budkowski, Team Principal: "Firstly, I am sorry for the fans who turned out to see Checo at the Fan Forum earlier today. Unfortunately, he was unwell overnight and we wanted to ensure he was fit enough to drive both sessions today in front of his home crowd.

With a number of back-to-back races across continents, it has been a relentless schedule for the drivers and the team. We were pleased to see Valtteri back in the car this afternoon after another successful session for Colton as he built up more running in the car.

On track, it has been a useful day gaining lots of data and learnings. This is a difficult circuit for cooling and the brakes, but the team have produced a good baseline on which to improve overnight. Our focus now is for both drivers to get a good sleep and come back ready for qualifying tomorrow."

Check out our Friday gallery from Mexico City here.