Carlos Sainz topped FP2 at Method 1’s 2024 Mexican Grand Prix, the place George Russell crashed arduous, Max Verstappen suffered repeat engine points and the working was dominated by Pirelli’s tyre take a look at.
Within the prolonged 90-minute session, McLaren’s Lando Norris led the pack out of the pits and duly shot to a 1m19.895s utilizing the 2025 prototype C5 Pirelli comfortable.
He was shuffled again by Pierre Gasly, Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, earlier than residence hero Sergio Perez received forward on a 1m19.150s utilizing the identical tyres as Norris.
Oscar Piastri, working the 2024 C4 compound, then nipped forward on a 1m19.030s, earlier than Sainz rounded out the opening 5 minutes of working with 1m18.276s on the 2024 C4 tyres which are the mediums for this weekend’s major occasion.
A couple of minutes later, Sainz improved the benchmark to a 1m17.809s, simply earlier than Russell massively interrupted the session and Pirelli’s take a look at with an enormous crash at Flip 9.
The Briton had gone too far over the within kerbs of the previous Flip 8, which brought on his Mercedes to backside out, and he spun off heading down in the direction of Flip 9 – the place he smashed sideways into the limitations and severely broken his W15.
Russell climbed gingerly from the wreckage, with Mercedes later confirming he returned from the circuit’s medical centre with none accidents detected.
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W15
Photograph by: Dom Romney / Motorsport Photos
The limitations took almost 25 minutes to restore, after which the session resumed and Sainz – now on the 2025 C4s – went even faster to place in a 1m17.699s.
After a brief burst of efficiency working post-red flag, as per Pirelli’s take a look at requirement, the drivers have been then switched to the high-fuel working of 10 laps on every compound they’d been given to run (the identical by means of 4 runs general at each 20kg and 100kg gas hundreds) for the session.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri ended up second based mostly on the efficiency runs, 0.178s down on Sainz and forward of RB’s Yuki Tsunoda.
Charles Leclerc did put in an additional flying lap whereas the others have been being fuelled for the longer tyre checks, as he had needed to look ahead to his Ferrari to be repaired after it was hit by Alex Albon’s Williams when being pushed by Oliver Bearman in FP1.
Leclerc subsequently didn’t get out earlier than the crimson flag and when he did post-restart, he slotted into tenth on the 2025 C4s earlier than leaping to fourth on a second try.
He then improved once more utilizing the 2024 C4s, however remained fourth – the place he stayed to the end, 0.188s slower than his team-mate.
Kevin Magnussen took sixth for Haas forward of Hamilton, Bottas and Perez, whereas Liam Lawson rounded out the highest 10 for RB.
Russell’s crash meant the FP1 topper ended up down in 18th in FP2’s classification, forward of Verstappen.
He had reported the identical unusual noise from his engine that had hampered his FP1 working and which Pink Bull thought it had fastened between the periods.
Additional changes in the course of the crimson flag didn’t enhance the scenario for Verstappen and he was pressured to sit down out the second half of the session, having additionally suffered a brake difficulty at Flip 1 in the course of the early working.
Norris, Alonso, Zhou Guanyu, Hamilton and Leclerc headed out very late on the primary occasion’s medium tyres, as per the allocation for groups that ran a rookie driver in FP1 that was supposed to present them an additional half-hour on that compound, earlier than Russell’s crash lower that point to the bone.
Norris nonetheless used his mediums to rise to fifth within the ultimate order, whereas Alonso received eleventh place with a pair of non-public bests late within the session and Leclerc’s solely actual lap on the related mediums featured an enormous lock-up at Flip 1.
Albon didn’t make it out of the storage as Williams was not in a position to restore his automobile earlier than the tip of the session.
