Ricciardo leads close second practice session

Daniel Ricciardo led a close second practice session in Mexico with six drivers separated by half a second at the top of the times.

His team mate Max Verstappen was third-quickest but stopped running quarter of an hour before the end of the session with a power unit problem. The two Red Bulls were separated by theworld championship leader Lewis Hamilton, who had a high-speed spin at the exit of turn 11 early in the session.

Alfonso Celis, Force India, Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, 2017 — **Mexican Grand Prix practice in pictures**

The second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas was slower than the two Ferraris. Sebastian Vettel had an eventful session on his way to the fourth-quickest time, having to pit at one point after his fire extinguisher discharged its contents. He also had a spin at turn 11.

Three other drivers set times within a second of Ricciardo’s best. Fernando Alonso was ‘best of the rest’, seven-tenths of a second down on Ricciardo. Next were Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg.

Esteban Ocon completed the top ten. His team finished repairs to his chassis, which had been damaged by Alfonso Celis in first practice, in time for the second session to start, though he did report some problems with his car pulling to one side on his first run.

Romain Grosjean also sat out the first session but he was unable to make up for lost time in the afternoon. A left-rear tyre failed at the exit of the Mansell corner on his second run, pitching him into a spin. The tyre then failed again as he drove down the pit straight, causing considerable damage to his VF-17. That ended his session and briefly caused practice to be red-flagged so the debris could be collection.

It went little better for Pierre Gasly, who did his first ever lap of the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez after missing first practice so Sean Gelael could drive. He then only managed ten laps before having to stop.

Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	1’17.801		26
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1’17.932	0.131	40
3	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	1’17.964	0.163	17
4	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1’18.051	0.250	35
5	7	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1’18.142	0.341	40
6	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1’18.299	0.498	43
7	14	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda	1’18.508	0.707	26
8	11	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes	1’18.728	0.927	41
9	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault	1’18.775	0.974	19
10	31	Esteban Ocon	Force India-Mercedes	1’18.822	1.021	42
11	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Renault	1’19.060	1.259	30
12	19	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes	1’19.206	1.405	37
13	28	Brendon Hartley	Toro Rosso-Renault	1’19.423	1.622	40
14	18	Lance Stroll	Williams-Mercedes	1’19.524	1.723	42
15	2	Stoffel Vandoorne	McLaren-Honda	1’19.844	2.043	32
16	94	Pascal Wehrlein	Sauber-Ferrari	1’20.306	2.505	38
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	1’20.318	2.517	35
18	9	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber-Ferrari	1’20.362	2.561	38
19	10	Pierre Gasly	Toro Rosso-Renault	1’21.745	3.944	10
20	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari	1’25.526	7.725	3

Second practice visual gaps

Daniel Ricciardo – 1’17.801

+0.131 Lewis Hamilton – 1’17.932

+0.163 Max Verstappen – 1’17.964

+0.250 Sebastian Vettel – 1’18.051

+0.341 Kimi Raikkonen – 1’18.142

+0.498 Valtteri Bottas – 1’18.299

+0.707 Fernando Alonso – 1’18.508

+0.927 Sergio Perez – 1’18.728

+0.974 Nico Hulkenberg – 1’18.775

+1.021 Esteban Ocon – 1’18.822

+1.259 Carlos Sainz Jnr – 1’19.060

+1.405 Felipe Massa – 1’19.206

+1.622 Brendon Hartley – 1’19.423

+1.723 Lance Stroll – 1’19.524

+2.043 Stoffel Vandoorne – 1’19.844

+2.505 Pascal Wehrlein – 1’20.306

+2.517 Kevin Magnussen – 1’20.318

+2.561 Marcus Ericsson – 1’20.362

+3.944 Pierre Gasly – 1’21.745

+7.725 Romain Grosjean – 1’25.526

Drivers more then ten seconds off the pace omitted.

2017 Mexican Grand Prix

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2017 F1 practice sessions

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13 comments on “Ricciardo leads close second practice session”

Jere (@jerejj)
27th October 2017, 21:38

Only an improvement of 0.023 seconds on the fastest FP1 time.
racerdude7730 (@racerdude7730)
27th October 2017, 22:17

So did Renault quietly sneak in a higher oil burning power unit like Ferrari and Mercedes? They limited running on the Red Bull bc of high oil burn. If so this is good for Renault but maybe they pushed it to far
1. MacLeod (@macleod)
  28th October 2017, 1:44
  
  They were using the old engines who doesn’t have that feature. I think it’s all aero which is really good here.
juan fanger (@juan-fanger)
27th October 2017, 22:26

Did the commentators say that RIC was also fastest on the Soft tyre?
Markos
27th October 2017, 22:39

What is Fernando doing there?
1. Egonovi
  27th October 2017, 22:52
  
  He found his mojo there ;)
2. KimiRaikkonen1207 (@kimiraikkonen1207)
  28th October 2017, 1:07
  
  I know – it’s really too bad he will have to serve out an entire grid’s worth of penalties.
3. spoutnik (@spoutnik)
  28th October 2017, 14:44
  
  New front wing is delivering for sure! A shame he’s got penalties again.
Guybrush Threepwood
27th October 2017, 22:55

Ricciardo is using the old spec engine, so an additional 0.2 seconds slower than the one Verstappen is using.
1. hahostolze (@hahostolze)
  28th October 2017, 9:49
  
  Nope, not in FP. Verstappen in an old unit. Nice try though.
2. Mike
  28th October 2017, 11:42
  
  Verstappen was also testing new 2018 parts in FP1 and then spent FP2 on setup. Unfortunately he did not get to the end of his program due to engine failure.
ia
27th October 2017, 23:26

Seems like RBR can go for a win
MacLeod (@macleod)
28th October 2017, 1:44

They were using the old engines who doesn’t have that feature. I think it’s all aero which is really good here.