#MexicoGP FP2: @Max33Verstappen edges @LandoNorris by 0.119s. #F1 #MexicanGP #F1ESTA

Verstappen Mexico GP FP2 – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen edged McLaren’s Lando Norris to finish the afternoon FP2 session fastest at the Mexico GP as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc rounded out the top three.

Verstappen’s time-topping benchmark was a 1:18.686 on the red side-walled C5 Soft compounds to be 0.119 seconds quicker than Norris as Leclerc was a further 0.266 off in third.

After AlphaTauri’s Daniel Ricciardo, Norris, Verstappen and Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon all enjoyed spells briefly at the top of the pile during the opening 15 minutes of the hour-long session, Verstappen grabbed it again with a 1:19.511 on the normal C4 yellow-marked Mediums.

This stood as the benchmark for the rest of the early proceedings the field had completed on the hard, medium and prototype C4 medium tyres, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri then leading the switch to the softs a few minutes after the one-third part of the session.

The Australian flew to P1 on a 1:19.163 on the red side-walled rubber, with most of the field also putting on that set of tyre for qualifying simulation runs over the next ten minutes.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso had the session’s wildest moment shortly after the midway point when he spun out of turn nine with 25 minutes left on the clock.

In that incident, the double world champion ran too hard over the inside kerbs of the fast left-hander and the rear of his AMR23 racer came around so severely he spun completely around, pirouetting across the full part of the short straight heading towards turn ten.

Albon slotted in behind Piastri before both drivers were relegated by others’ improvements – lead by Verstappen’s 1:19.686 posted just after Alonso’s spin, with Norris 0.119 seconds behind the Dutchman.

Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez at first failed to beat his personal best effort early in FP2 whilst running the Pirelli C4 prototype mediums, before the Mexican jumped up the order with a 1:18.988 which was 0.302 off the pace.

Perez was then ousted by Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas and Leclerc, who took third in the classification as one of the drivers except for the Aston Martin duo to post a lap-time on the softs.

With heavy clouds above the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez – heavy rain hitting Mexico City hard overnight and a few light spots falling over the final corners and pit-lane early in Free Practice 2 – the field swapped to the traditional long race pace data-gathering runs.

During this, the rain returned with 15 minutes remaining – initially very light before intensifying ever more steadily in the final minutes, although not to the point where the intermediates or full wets were needed.

The Aston Martin pairing not completing a qualifying simulation run meant the top five spots were untouched to the session’s end, with Ricciardo wounding up sixth in-front of Mercedes’ Sir Lewis Hamilton, who set the fastest time in sector three but ended up 0.338 seconds behind Verstappen.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon took eighth in the classification over Piastri, with Mercedes’ George Russell rounding out the top ten.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz came outside the top ten in 11th and ahead of AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who was 12th and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu who placed 13th in the classification.

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon and Logan Sargeant finished Free Practice 2 in 14th and 17th respectively as Haas F1 Team’s Hulkenberg and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly sandwiched the pairing in 15th and 16th on the classification.

Aston Martin duo Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso ended the day in 18th and at the rear with Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen splitting the AMR23 entries in 19th.

Stroll completed the fewest tours of all due to a problem on the left-front wheel of his Mercedes-powered AMR23 racer leaving the Canadian stuck in the pits for most of Free Practice Two’s second half.

You can see the full Formula 1 Gran Premio De La Ciudad De Mexico 2023 Free Practice 2 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1223/mexico/practice-2.html

#MexicoGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen tops time-sheets ahead of @alex_albon. #F1 #MexicanGP

#F1 #MexicoCityGP 2023 Preview. #MexicanGP #MexicoGP #Formula1