Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

By: Geoff Creighton

Summary

Red Bulls set the pace again - Verstappen then stops on track late on
Renault repeats strong FP1 performance
Mercedes lacking pace on hypersofts
Gasly first on track after missing FP1Promoted: Play along with Pitstop Betting. Download the app today. T&Cs apply
Status: Stopped
Driver, Team
Verstappen, Red Bull
Ricciardo, Red Bull
Sainz, Renault
Vettel, Ferrari
Hulkenberg, Renault
Hartley, Toro Rosso
Hamilton, Mercedes
Raikkonen, Ferrari
Bottas, Mercedes
Perez, Force India
Here's the full report and results from that intriguing session. We'll be providing live coverage of Phillip Island MotoGP qualifying from 6am UK time tomorrow morning, then our live F1 updates resume with practice three in Mexico from 4pm. See you then.
Mexican Grand Prix practice: Verstappen fastest then breaks down in FP2
 
 
 
 
The rest: 11 Ocon; 12 Grosjean; 13 Leclerc; 14 Gasly; 15 Vandoorne; 16 Stroll; 17 Ericsson; 18 Sirotkin; 19 Alonso; 20 Magnussen
Result: 1 Verstappen: 2 Ricciardo +0.153s; 3 Sainz +1.233s; 4 Vettel +1.234s; 5 Hulkenberg +1.326s; 6 Hartley +1.341s; 7 Hamilton +1.380s; 8 Raikkonen +1.413s; 9 Bottas +1.420s; 10 Perez +1.447s
There's the chequered flag to end a mostly brilliant but slightly worrying Mexico Friday for Red Bull.
 
 
Red Bull has been pretty grumpy about reliability problems this year (and for the previous four). Reliability problems hitting on a weekend when Red Bull looks absolutely dominant so far? Things will go beyond grumpy if that happens on Sunday...
"Are the brakes hot? What can I do?" Verstappen asks. "You don't want me to spray anything on it?" That sounds like him asking what to do to preserve the slightly smoking car.
A replay suggests Verstappen's car just shut down as he braked for the first corner.
Verstappen is popping the steering wheel out of his Red Bull, his day is done.
Alonso declares "I think I will box". "Please stay out Fernando, please stay out," replies McLaren.
Verstappen's Red Bull has stopped at the side of the track - is that a mechanical problem for today's pacesetter?
A replay shows Alonso was passing Ocon's Force India when he went off at Turn 1. He accelerated across the grass and slewed sideways back onto the track in pretty glorious style.
 
 
Alonso is the latest person to brake too late for the first corner and skitter over the grass.
However, if that doesn't happen and the hypersoft remains a nightmare tyre, it's worth noting that everyone has a LOT of hypersofts and not a lot of anything else:
Hypersofts dominate Formula 1 teams' Mexican Grand Prix tyre choice
We should add the caveat that tracks often change considerably as they rubber-in through the weekend, and a tyre that appears to be made of cheese on a green track on a Friday can be really just fine in race conditions.
Ricciardo reports that he's got warning lights for a "hot" power unit, and that it's been that way for a while.
Verstappen now proves he's mortal as his time goes up to a 1m23.0s. Ricciardo's doing a 1m23.7s. Hamilton's persisted onto 13 laps on hypersofts and is now lapping in 1m26s.
While Ricciardo's times have gone up to 1m23s now, Verstappen's actually going faster - he's just done a 1m21.130s on seven-lap-old hypersofts.
Vettel pits, gets rid of those hypersofts and takes on supersofts.

 
The Red Bulls are both in the 1m22s early on their hypersoft long runs so far, let's see how they hold up.
An unhappy Hamilton's hypersoft long run times have just gone up from 1m23s to 1m26s too.
Here's a glimpse of how the hypersofts are doing for Vettel - his first three laps on this run went 1m21.8s, 1m22.3s, 1m22.8s. Then suddenly it was up to 1m25s and then 1m27s. He radioed in to say that was the best he could do.
Stroll has a little visit to the runoff area and continues unscathed.
Vandoorne's hypersoft lap moves him up from 20th to 15th, which is half a second faster than 19th-placed team-mate Alonso and means Magnussen has ended up last.
Hamilton is now out on used hypersofts, Bottas on very, very used ultrasofts.
 
Vandoorne is now doing his hypersoft run to complete the set.
Raikkonen is back out but has switched to used supersofts. It's long run time.
 
Here's a rundown of the pleasingly unusual team positions at the moment: Red Bull: 1-2. Renault: 3-5. Ferrari: 4-8. Toro Rosso: 6-14. Mercedes: 7-9. Force India: 10-11. Haas: 12-19. Sauber: 13-16. Williams: 15-17. McLaren: 18-20

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe