FP2: Verstappen edges out Norris and Leclerc in second practice in Mexico City

F1 Grand Prix, GP Mexico, Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez

Freshly-crowned three-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen topped the second practce at the Mexico City Grand Prix, edging out McLaren's Lando Norris and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. F1Technical's senior writer Balázs Szabó reports on Free Practice 2.

After setting the benchmark in the opening one-hour session, Max Verstappen once again ended up fastest in the afternoon practice, using Pirelli's soft tyres to record a time of 1m18.686s.

His team-mate Sergio Perez was three tenths of a second slower, losing just over a tenth of a second in all three sectors of the Hermanos Rodriguez track. The Mexican's time of 1m198.988s was enough for a P5 with Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and Valtteri Bottas slotting in between the two Red Bull racers.

Bottas might have impressed in the second practice, but so did Daniel Ricciardo, who took sixth with his AlphaTauri that has been heavily upgraded in Austin just a week ago.

Their team-mates Zhou Guanyu and Yuki Tsunoda ended up 13th and 12h quickest respectively.

Lewis Hamilton had an encouraging second practice, ending in P7 only 338 thousands of a second behind the pace-setter Verstappen. The seven-time world champion performed a very strong high fuel run which indicated that he might challenge the Dutchman for the second straight race after Austin.

George Russell, who sat out of the opening session while Frederik Vesti made his F1 practice debut, quickly settled into a rhythm in the second practice, and ended up tenth fastest.

After finishing only a fraction slower than pacesetter Verstappen in the opening practice, Alex Albon slipped down to 14th for Williams. His team-mate Logan Sargeant took 17th.

Alpine had a mixed afternoon session with Esteban Ocon taking 8th and Pierre Gasly ending up 16th quickest.

It was a difficult session for Aston Martin as Lance Stroll was hampered by a problematic wheel that became stuck to his car as he finished a lowly 18th. His team-mate Fernando Alonso was on a quick hot lap before he endured a high-speed spin at Turn 10 which left the two-time champion at the bottom of the timesheets.