Mexican GP: Russell tops second F1 practice, Leclerc shunts

The extended 90-minute session saw drivers focus on running Pirelli’s prototype rubber for next year, building on the findings from Austin one week ago with a softer selection of compounds.

Drivers were required to run identical programmes through the session, comprising two five-lap runs before then going for two eight-lap runs.

Russell was one of only five drivers permitted to use the 2022 tyre compounds during FP2 at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Friday afternoon, having sat out FP1 for Mercedes reserve driver Nyck de Vries.

Russell was joined by AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Williams’ Alex Albon in running the 2022 tyres through the first half of the session.

Russell set a fastest lap time of 1m19.970s on the soft compound tyre, finishing eight-tenths of a second clear of Tsunoda in second place. Ocon was a further four-tenths of a second behind in third for Alpine, the trio having completed their initial runs on mediums.

While the rest of the field was focused on Pirelli’s 2023 tyres, the running was interrupted 33 minutes into the session when a red flag was thrown after Leclerc crashed heavily at Turn 7, losing the rear of his Ferrari F1-75 car when turning in.

Leclerc had been three laps in to his third stint on the Pirelli prototype tyre, but impacted the barrier at the entry to the esses with the rear of his car, causing damage to the rear wing and left corner. The Monegasque quickly reported over the radio that he was OK, but said: “The car is not.”

The damage to the barrier meant it took 20 minutes before running could resume, by which point all drivers were left focusing on Pirelli prototypes through the remainder of the session.

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest lap time on the prototype tyre during his third stint after pitting halfway through his second run. The seven-time world champion finished 1.5 seconds down on Mercedes team-mate Russell at the head of the field.

He narrowly beat Red Bull driver and home favourite Sergio Perez, who was just seven-hundredths of a second further back having reported struggles with rear locking earlier in the session. Perez was also seen trying a number of different lines at Turn 1 after noting some bouncing at the end of the straight.

Perez’s Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen followed in sixth place, ending the session within a tenth of 2021 title rival Hamilton’s best effort on the prototypes.

Leclerc’s lap time set during his second stint on the prototype tyres was still good enough for seventh place ahead of Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz, while Valtteri Bottas and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10.

Fernando Alonso ended FP2 in 11th place for Alpine ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, while Albon could only muster 13th after only completing a short run on the 2022 softs before switching to the prototype tyres for Williams.

McLaren duo Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo ended the session 14th and 15th respectively ahead of Lance Stroll in the second Aston Martin, with Mick Schumacher following in 17th for Haas.

Kevin Magnussen was limited to 20 laps through the session after losing the opening half an hour due to an engine change by his Haas team following the stoppage in FP1 when Pietro Fittipaldi was in the car.

Magnussen will take a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race as a result of the engine change, which was outside of his allocation for the season.

Due to the lost time, Haas opted against running him on the 2022 tyres and instead focused on Pirelli prototype running, leaving him 18th overall only ahead of Williams’ Nicholas Latifi and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu.

Zhou brought out a red flag with less than two minutes left on the clock in FP2 after reporting a hydraulic failure, pulling to the side of the track in Foro Sol after being instructed to stop his car.

Cla	Driver	Chassis	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	km/h
1	George Russell	Mercedes	32	1'19.970			193.752
2	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	30	1'20.798	0.828	0.828	191.767
3	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	31	1'21.177	1.207	0.379	190.871
4	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	32	1'21.509	1.539	0.332	190.094
5	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	34	1'21.579	1.609	0.070	189.931
6	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	34	1'21.588	1.618	0.009	189.910
7	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	13	1'21.618	1.648	0.030	189.840
8	Carlos Sainz	Ferrari	34	1'21.693	1.723	0.075	189.666
9	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo	36	1'21.993	2.023	0.300	188.972
10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	36	1'22.104	2.134	0.111	188.716
11	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	31	1'22.337	2.367	0.233	188.182
12	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	32	1'22.371	2.401	0.034	188.105
13	Alex Albon	Williams	24	1'22.447	2.477	0.076	187.931
14	Lando Norris	McLaren	31	1'22.738	2.768	0.291	187.270
15	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	27	1'22.763	2.793	0.025	187.214
16	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	23	1'22.840	2.870	0.077	187.040
17	Mick Schumacher	Haas	31	1'22.879	2.909	0.039	186.952
18	Kevin Magnussen	Haas	21	1'23.316	3.346	0.437	185.971
19	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	34	1'23.320	3.350	0.004	185.962
20	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo	34	1'23.369	3.399	0.049	185.853
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