Mexico City GP: Sainz quickest as testing dominates FP2
Yesterday at 07:42 PM
Ferrari's Carlos Sainz topped the times in Free Practice 2 in Mexico City ahead of Oscar Piastri and Yuki Tsunoda, but a programme of Pirelli tyre testing made the extended session largely irrelevant to the weekend's race action.
There was a big accident for FP1 pace setter George Russell early in the session after the Mercedes went off at turn 9 into a heavy sidelong impact with the barrier.
Max Verstappen's session was also hampered with further issues on the Red Bull following on from his curtailed outing in first practice.
Second practice at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez was always going to be an strange affair, as it included a special programme of prototype tyre comparison tests for Pirelli instead of the usual straightforward time trials. Each team had been tasked to carry out two performance runs and then two long runs, some provided with two sets of the same compound while others had two different compounds on mandated fuel loads and limited set-up chahnges. Confused? Many people were, but the teams got down to business all the same.
Absent from those heading out for the start of an extended 90 minute session were Alex Albon and Charles Leclerc, whose cars were sill under repair having been involved in crashes in first practice. Leclerc was soon ready to roll, but not Albon: "It's going to be a struggle," Williams team principal James Vowles admitted when asked whether Albon would make it out in time this afternoon. "We've had to do an engine change, engine and gearbox, a lot of mechanical parts. I could keep listing it out, but it's going to be a real struggle." In the end, it was a step too far for the team.
First to hit the track was Lando Norris who had given up his car to Patricio O'Ward in FP1. He was straight onto an unmarked set of the 2025 C5 rubber on his McLaren. Meanwhile local hero Sergio Perez was also quick to get to work, complaining that his brake pedal felt a bit stiff while his Red Bull team mate Max Verstappen was complaining about the sound of his engine: "This noise is very disturbing, this can't be normal?" he said, adding: "What the hell, the brakes didn't work at all!"
Pierre Gasly was out on the C4 rubber but ended up going across the grass at turn 1 one his early run. But moments later there were more serious problems for FP1 pace setter George Russell who brought out the red flags after his Mercedes went sidelong into the barriers at turn 9, having strayed too far over the kerb on entry inflicting significant damage to the floor. It triggered a lengthy red flag as Russell limped over to the medical car which ferried him off for the mandatory check-up back on pit lane.
At the same time, Liam Lawson had also had a near-miss oversteer moment at turn 3 in his RB having been given the the C5 and C6 rubber to work with today. Fortunately the Kiwi got away with it and was still in action when the session resumed after lengthy barrier repairs. "This red flag is affecting our plans quite a lot," sighed Pirelli motorsport director Mario Isola. "But we know this happens. It's difficult to predict, but I hope we can get some information from this test as it's the last opportunity we have."
The session was not extended as a result of the prolonged stoppage, so it was no help to the mechanics still working on Verstappen and Albon's cars on pit lane as the other teams got back to work. Carlos Sainz was quickest for Ferrari on 1:17.699s on the C4 tyre ahead of Oscar Piastri on the C5s and Yuki Tsunoda on a mix of the C5 and C6, followed by Charles Leclerc on C4s. Verstappen was also back out, but was soon summoned back to pit lane with the power loss problem from first practice recurring where his Red Bull was painstakingly dismantled and the floor taken off as the driver made himself scarce.
Lewis Hamilton - now in the sole remaining Mercedes on track - nudged past Perez and Bottas into the largely irrelevant top six at the halfway mark of the extended session, still half a second back from Sainz' current high water mark. However speed was not the main focus of the Pirelli programme at this point, and the positions were unusually static as the cars simply put in the requisite test miles.
With half an hour of the extended session still to go, the top six were unchanged as the tyre testing continued. Esteban Ocon reported a strong smell of burning but it proved to be coming not from his Alpine but apparently from the front brakes of Zhou Guanyu's Sauber. There was also a problem for Hamilton after a thin strip of plastic and other debris got snagged on the rear wing of the W15.
Track evolution and rapidly falling air and track temperatures as the sun began to get low in the sky added to the complication for the teams. Zhou completed his test programme in time to give him a final six minutes of running on the regular medium tyres, with Fernando Alonso also getting the opportunity for some standard testing. Norris was able to break into the top six by the chequered flag but Leclerc didn't get a chance to switch to regular rubber and Hamilton was hampered by yellows.
With so much time lost after Russell's accident, there had been little opportunity for the other teams to do much more than complete the Pirelli test schedule. That means there will be more focus on tomorrow's final practice session than normal, as everyone works on qualifying and long run race pace.
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