Verstappen Turns The Fast Lap In Mexico City

MEXICO CITY — Red Bull driver Max Verstappen set the pace during second practice at the Mexico City Grand Prix at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

The Dutchman led the way from the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc and Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.

After a total of nine rookies were given an outing during Friday’s first practice hour – which was topped by Leclerc – the drivers that had sat out that session returned to action for FP2, which got underway in warm and dry conditions.

As all 20 cars peeled out of the pit lane within a few minutes of the green light appearing – the majority sporting medium tires – there was early trouble for Antonelli when the Mercedes driver reported an issue on his W16, with the initial instruction being to “limp home.” The Italian was able to continue running, before again having to return to the pits as the problem persisted.

Antonelli’s teammate George Russell – who was amongst those to miss FP1 – had a wide moment off track during the opening moments, while Leclerc had set the pace in the first quarter of the session. The Ferrari racer went quickest on a lap of 1 minute and 18.353 seconds, just over three-tenths clear of McLaren’s Lando Norris and the other Scuderia car of Lewis Hamilton in second and third, respectively.

But Verstappen turned up the heat with a lap of 1 minute and 17.392 seconds, which withstood the remainder of the session.

“The short run I think on the softs we managed to do a good lap,” Verstappen said. “The rest, everything else was pretty bad. On the medium, short run was not great and the big problem is the long runs where we seem to struggle a lot. That is of course a big concern for the race.”

Leclerc ended up second with Antonelli third, while Norris clocked in fourth and Hamilton completed the top five.