Verstappen a tenth quicker than Norris as rain hits second practice

Max Verstappen topped both practice sessions on Friday at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, leading Lando Norris in the second hour.

The world champion set the pace once again in the afternoon, a tenth of a second quicker than Norris’s McLaren. Charles Leclerc was third-fastest for Ferrari, with Valtteri Bottas ending the session fourth for Alfa Romeo.

George Russell, Pierre Gasly, Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda returned to their cockpits for the second hour of running after sitting out the opening practice session to give track time to a quintet of junior drivers. As in the first session, all teams had extra sets of experimental C4 compound tyres from Pirelli to run to help gather data for 2024.

The vast majority of drivers headed out on the prototype tyres, with Norris setting the early time to beat with a 1’20.109, around six tenths slower than Verstappen’s best time from the earlier session. After leaving the pit lane later than most, also on the prototype tyres, Verstappen’s first timed lap was good enough to put him on top of the times with a 1’20.085.

Drops of rain began falling over the pit lane and the final sector soon after the session began. But despite the spits from above, the rain was not enough to affect the track conditions significantly.

Verstappen used the medium compound tyres and posted a new best time of the session with a 1’19.511, despite having to navigate around Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin through the sweeping corners in the middle sector. Leclerc went exactly a tenth slower than the Red Bull driver to put his Ferrari up to second, before both were beaten by the McLaren of Oscar Piastri, who posted a 1’19.163 on the soft compound.

Alonso attempted a push lap but lost control of his Aston Martin at the exit of turn nine, spinning through 360 degrees. Despite his frightening moment, Alonso fortunately avoided the barriers and could continue without suffering damage to his car. It was a compromised session for Aston Martin, as Lance Stroll was stuck in the pits for several minutes as the team was unable to remove a stuck front-left wheel from his car.

Verstappen set out to reclaim the fastest time by fitting soft tyres to his car. He was successful by a comfortable margin, easily setting a new best time of the day with a 1’18.686. Norris got closest to the world champion on the softs, a tenth of a second slower than Verstappen’s best.

The usual switch to higher-fuel runs in the final third of the session appeared to be under threat of being impacted by ran approaching the circuit. But despite more drops over the track, it again failed to escalate into any significant shower. Verstappen’s best time held on to the top of the hour and the chequered flag, by which time the rain was starting to fall much harder.

Verstappen therefore topped the times again with Norris second just a tenth slower. Leclerc was third-fastest for Ferrari, with Valtteri Bottas putting his Alfa Romeo in a surprise fourth place in his only session of the day. Sergio Perez was fifth fastest in the second Red Bull, with Daniel Ricciardo sixth for AlphaTauri.

Lewis Hamilton was seventh for Mercedes, with Esteban Ocon in eighth. Piastri was ninth in the second McLaren – within half a second of Verstappen – and the top ten cars were completed by Russell’s Mercedes.

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2023 Mexican Grand Prix second practice result

P.	#	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’18.686		26
2	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’18.805	0.119	31
3	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	SF-23	1’18.952	0.266	33
4	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’18.955	0.269	33
5	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’18.988	0.302	29
6	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	AT04	1’19.002	0.316	31
7	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W14	1’19.024	0.338	30
8	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’19.077	0.391	29
9	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’19.163	0.477	31
10	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W14	1’19.227	0.541	31
11	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	SF-23	1’19.257	0.571	34
12	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	AT04	1’19.290	0.604	34
13	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’19.415	0.729	27
14	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’19.446	0.760	23
15	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’19.535	0.849	29
16	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’19.642	0.956	29
17	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’19.900	1.214	26
18	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’20.075	1.389	17
19	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’20.112	1.426	30
20	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’20.426	1.740	30

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2023 Mexican Grand Prix

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• Ferrari reaping the benefits of having F1’s most closely-matched team mates
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