Verstappen quickest in Mexico FP2 despite late issue

Max Verstappen headed a one-two finish for Red Bull in the second Formula 1 practice session for the Mexican Grand Prix on Friday, but saw his session come to an early end when an issue forced him to park up at the side of the track late on.

After finishing over a second clear of the rest of the field in FP1 in the morning, Red Bull once again dominated proceedings in FP2 as Verstappen and teammate Daniel Ricciardo surged clear at the front of the pack.

Verstappen recorded a fastest lap time of 1m16.720s to finish 0.153 seconds clear of Ricciardo on the Hypersoft tyre, with the high downforce requirements of the high altitude circuit in Mexico playing to the strengths of the RB14 car.

Verstappen’s advantage was such that his time on the slower Ultrasoft tyre was still half a second quicker than any other driver, before the Dutchman then found an additional seven-tenths of a second when he moved onto Hypersofts.

However, concerns were flared on the Red Bull pit wall when he was forced to park his car up at the side of the track at Turn 3 with 10 minutes left on the clock in FP2, having run wide at the first corner just moments earlier.

Smoke was seen coming from the rear of Verstappen's car, which appeared to suffer a complete shutdown, sparking concerns that reliability may dash his hopes of a first victory since Austria this weekend in Mexico.

Renault continued its good form from FP1 to once again disrupt the ‘big three’ teams, beating both Mercedes drivers. Carlos Sainz Jr. managed to finish the session third, 1.2 seconds behind Verstappen, and edged out Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel by one-thousandth of a second to leave the German P4 overall.

Nico Hulkenberg took fifth in the second Renault ahead of Toro Rosso’s Brendon Hartley, who put in a stellar effort on Hypersofts to grab P6 ahead of championship leader Lewis Hamilton in seventh for Mercedes.

Kimi Raikkonen took eighth ahead of Valtteri Bottas in ninth as both struggled to match the pace of their teammates at Ferrari and Mercedes respectively, while home favourite Sergio Perez rounded out the top 10 for Force India.

The session was once again filled with driver radio complaints about the Hypersoft tyre, which suffered from significant graining and wear, suggesting drivers may favour to use the Ultrasofts in Q2 tomorrow to ensure it is their starting tyre for the race.

A number of drivers experienced significant pace drop-offs just four or five laps into their Hypersoft stints, creating a strategy headache for many of the teams to ponder tonight ahead of FP3 and qualifying on Saturday.