F1 Mexico City GP: Max Verstappen sets pace from Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc in muddled second practice
The three-time world champ🎉ion was 0.119s quicker than McLaren’s in-form Lando Norris during the soft tyre runs at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, with Charles Leclerc 0.266 further back in his Ferrari.
Valtteri Bot𓂃tas produced an eye-catching lap to slot his Alfa Romeo into fourth🔥, just 0.269s slower than Verstappen’s benchmark, in a tightly-contested second practice that featured sporadic light rain showers.
The under-pressure Sergio Perez, cheered on by a raucous home crowd, languished three-tenths adrift of Red Bull teammate Verstappen in 🉐fifth.
Daniel Ricciardo demonstrated an encouraging show of pace in his AlphaTauri to t💯ake sixth, ahead of Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes.&nb🌞sp;
Coming into the weekend Hamilton said that he believed Mercedes could challenge Verstappen for the second straight race, but the seven-time world champion will need🍬 to find more pace to turn that aim into reality after ending up 0.388s behind the Dutchman following a low-key start in FP1.
Esteban Ocon took eighth in his Alpine, ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and the second Mercedes of George Russell, who sat out of the opening se⛦ssion while Frederik Vesti made his F1 practice debut.
Just 0.541s separated the top 10 with less than a second covering the top 16 runners in a competitive and mixed up end to Friday’s running in Mexico City.&nb꧒sp;
After starring in FP1 by finishing a fraction slower than pacesetter Verstappen, Alex Albon slipped d𒉰own to 14th for Williams.
It was a difficult session for Aston Martin as Lance Stroll was hampered by a pr🔯oblematic wheel that became stuck to his car as hℱe finished a lowly 18th.
🌊Meanwhile, a high-speed spin at Turn 10 left Fernando Alonso bottom of the timesheets and without a low-fuel, soft🐬 tyre run.
Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix for mahbx.com around the world. Often reportiౠng on the🐲 action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in the sport.
