Carlos Sainz fastest as George Russell crashes, Max Verstappen hits trouble
Carlos Sainz tops FP2 as George Russell crashes heavily and Max Verstappen runs into trouble.
Carlos Sainz ended an extended second practice at the F1 Mexico City Grand Prix with the fastest time as George Russell suffered a heavy crash.
The Ferrari driver ended up 0.178 seconds clear of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in FP2, which was extended to 90 minutes to accommodate 2025 tyre testing for Pirelli.
Just as he was in the morning session, Yuki Tsunoda set the third-quickest time for RB, just 0.001s adrift of Piastri and less than two tenths slower than Sainz’s benchmark.
Russell caused an early red flag when he had a huge shunt at Turn 9, resulting in a 25 minute delay to the session.
Mercedes confirmed Russell was physically ok following a trip to the medical centre.
Charles Leclerc was fourth-quickest for Ferrari ahead of Lando Norris, who placed fifth for Ferrari.
There was trouble for Norris’s title rival and current championship leader Max Verstappen, who failed to set a lap time and was sidelined for much of FP2 while Red Bull investigated a power unit issue on the Dutchman’s car.
Kevin Magnussen was sixth for Haas, ahead of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who was nearly six tenths adrift of Sainz.
Valtteri Bottas, home hero Sergio Perez and Liam Lawson rounded out the rest of the top-10 for Sauber, Red Bull and RB respectively.
Williams were unable to fix Alex Albon’s car in time for him to participate in the afternoon session after he sustained extensive damage in his big FP1 shunt with Ferrari’s Ollie Bearman.
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