MEXICO CITY — Mercedes’ George Russell topped the charts in the second practice at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
Russell lapped the 17-turn road course at a blistering 1:19.970 early on in the session, which ended up holding through the end of the session.
“Today was one of our better Friday’s, if not the best of the year so far – the car is working well and it felt good driving on this track,” Russell said. “The pace was relatively strong, but we know the challenges at this circuit. For qualifying, the difficulty will be to get the tires in the right window for the single lap run. And on Sunday, it will be difficult to manage temperatures for the engine and for the brakes.
“A podium finish should hopefully be possible for us this weekend, so that’s what we will be aiming for. Not having the normal FP2 running, where we get to assess the long run performance of our rivals, doesn’t allow us to understand where our competitors are and that can become a big challenge if we will struggle with tyre temperatures during the race.
“We take some very useful learnings about tire temperature management for next year and will be working hard overnight as it’s not going to be a straightforward weekend for sure, but positive learnings for us today.”
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc crashed shortly after in turn seven, sustaining substantial damage to the rear end of the car.
Behind Russell, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda slotted into second, followed by Esteban Ocon, Lewis Hamilton, and Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez.
Two-time world champion Max Verstappen wound up sixth in the session.