Mexico City Grand Prix FP2: Sainz tops, Russell crashes, Verstappen breaks down
F1 NewsSaturday, 26 October 2024 at 01:35
Carlos Sainz topped the second practice session for the 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix for Ferrari as Max Verstappen's engine woes continued and George Russell crashed.
FP2 was an extended session as Pirelli brought 2025 tyre prototypes for testing which also meant the times registered were not really accurate.
But it seems a good car will be fast on any type of tyre and that was the case with Ferrari who took a famous one-two in the US Grand Prix last weekend as Sainz was the fastest driver at the end of the 90-minute session.
Verstappen, on the other hand, had a terrible session as he couldn't even set a time, his Honda power unit misbehaving from the start, and while Red Bull used the time under the Red flag - brought out by Russell's crash - to try and fix the issue, it was clearly too complicated to be sorted out to make sure the Dutchman returned to the track.
As such the defending Formula 1 champion was called back to the pits after the session was restarted and his RB20 was taken apart as Red Bull confirmed his session was over.
After topping FP1, Russell crashed early on in the session and was taken to the medical center for checkups but was cleared. His time set before the crash was good for 18th.
Oscar Piastri set the second fastest time behind Sainz while Yuki Tsunoda once again shined and was third fastest in the VCARB.
After missing out on FP1, Charles Leclerc was fourth fastest in the second Ferrari ahead of Lando Norris who was fifth and also missed out on the morning practice session.
Kevin Magnussen was sixth fastest in the Haas ahead of seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton in seventh. The Briton was back in the Mercedes after he made way for Kimi Antonelli in FP1.
Valtteri Bottas was eighth ahead of Sergio Perez in ninth with Liam Lawson rounding off the top ten.
Buildup towards FP2
Nothing much could be taken away from the first practice session for the Mexico City Grand Prix with two Red flags and five young drivers replacing team regulars.
As for FP2, all the full time drivers will be back and especially Alonso who was ill on Thursday as he gears up for his 400th F1 weekend.
The session will run for 90 minutes as Pirelli has some prototype tyres for the teams to test.
Verstappen did not have an ideal FP1 with power unit trouble and damaged floor hampering his running while Norris missed it altogether. So FP2 will be their serious chance to get their weekends up and running.
A highlight of the session was the crash between Alex Albon and Oliver Bearman and while the latter's Ferrari was fixed in time for Leclerc to take part in FP2, the Williams was so damaged that it will not be ready to take part in the second practice.
But what are Pirelli up to? Well the Italian tyre manufacturer are using this FP2 to test the softest tyre compounds for next year, including a new C6 tyre.
- Teams will be given two tyres to test. These will both be unmarked sidewall.
- One will be a 2024 tyre of either C4 or C5.
- One will be a 2025 tyre of either C4, C5 or C6.
- Old C4 will be compared new C4. Old C5 will be compared to new C5 or new C6.
- Teams will be aware of which tyre they are running and of each other teams’ tyres.
- They will complete on each a low fuel run of push cool push format at 20 kg for 5 laps with DRS on.
- A high fuel run of 12 laps at 100 kg. DRS off. Gentle introduction can be done on the C6 but they really just want the drivers to push from the off.
- No starts allowed. Only pit stop practice at the end of the run.
- One driver in a team will run the 2024 tyre first and the 2025 tyre second. The other driver will reverse the order to remove track improvement.
FP2 Session Highlights
Clear conditions continued in FP2 for the Mexico City Grand Prix while track temperature dropped down to 42 degrees Celsius while the ambient temperature was 23 degrees.
Norris led the drivers out on track while Leclerc waited for his car to get ready before taking part in the session.
Soon Pierre Gasly brought out a brief Yellow flag having gone off track and had to go through the grass before rejoining.
Perez soon radioed: "The brake pedal feels a little bit stiff." But soon Verstappen delivers a more worrying message: "I still hear a weird noise in the engine."
The team told him to keep going but soon the Dutchman comes back saying: "This noise is very disturbing, it cannot be normal."
He also complained about the brakes and was called back into the pits. Red Bull confirmed after FP1 that the issue for Verstappen was an air leak which was sorted.
Less than 15 minutes into the session, the Red flag was back as Russell, on unmarked Pirelli tyres, ended up in the barriers at Turn 9.
Replay showed Russell losing control of the car after going hard on the kerbs at Turn 8, heading into Turn 9 and the Mercedes bounces out of control.
Russell was driven back to the medical center while marshals set on clearing his stricken Mercedes and fixing the barriers.
Replay showed, ahead of Russell's crash, Lawson's VCARB snapping out of control as the Kiwi had to go into the run-off area to regain his control over the car.
Russell was later released from the medical center and was given the all clear. A Mercedes spokesperson said:
"He's been released from the medical center and is back in the hospitality. He's physically okay but it was a significant impact."
"He's been released from the medical center and is back in the hospitality. He's physically okay but it was a significant impact."
In the meantime, at Red Bull, Verstappen was out of his car as the team tried to understand the problem.
The session was restarted with less than 55 minutes on the clock, and it appeared that Red Bull were able to sort out Verstappen's car in time for the session restart.
Soon Verstappen is called back into into the pits as the team inform him the problem in back. The triple F1 champion got out of his car, gloves and helmet off.
Indeed, it was session over for Verstappen as TV footage showed the Red Bull mechanics taking the floor off the # 1 RB20.
Verstappen was not the only driver suffering from car issues, Zhou Guanyu also reported his brakes were burning and also said on the team radio: "My engine is cutting guys. I don't know if you guys don't see it, but I'm feeling it cutting."
But the difference is: Zhou is not fighting for his fourth F1 title.
However, the Chinese driver managed to keep going.
With less the 30 minutes remaining, Norris and Alonso were having a mini-race of their own apparently impatient and could not wait till Sunday.
There was nothing much more to report from this point onward as drivers went on with their business putting in the laps on the standard and test Pirelli tyres.
The session ended with practice starts.
How they finished
Sainz's best lap time in FP2 was a 1:17.699, 0.178s clear of Piastri in second while Tsunoda was 0.001s further behind the Australian driver in third.
Leclerc was fourth fastest, 0.188s off the pace of his teammate and was 0.061s ahead of Norris in fifth, the Briton in turn 0.291s faster than Kevin Magnussen in sixth.
Hamilton posted a 1:18.279 to go seventh fastest in the Mercedes and was 0.072s ahead of his former teammate, Bottas in eighth.
Perez was ninth fastest, 0.693s off the top time and 0.168s ahead of Lawson in tenth.
Mexico City Grand Prix FP2 Classification
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